Through the Darkness
by Bardothren
Summary: In the third entry in the Sinex Conquest Saga, stability has returned to the city of Palsitore, but with the coming of age of Arkus' daughter, old foes emerge to snuff out this source of Aura before it destroys them. Witness the struggle for survival on both sides of the conflict and the emotional upheaval the battle's resolution leaves in its wake.
1. Chapters 1-2

Through the Darkness

By Bardothren

Chapter 1: Chihiro de Arkus

Chihiro stared down the scope of her father's sniper rifle. Her brown shirt and skirt were rumpled beneath her, and her white shoes were smeared with grass stains. A few feet in front of her, the land abruptly stopped, forming a rocky cliff face. Below her was a grassy field sparsely shaded by a few trees. Sacks of flour hung from branches and swayed in the wind. Her own black hair whipped around in the wind, slipping into her ears and making her want to smooth it out. Instead, she pressed her cheek closer to the rifle, until all she felt was the pressure of the metal against her jaw. Her father, Arkus, sat on a box to her left, watching her progress and offering quips of advice.

"Don't have your face so close to the gun," her father said. His long, purple hair flowed in the wind, and his light green eyes gazed at the dangling sacks. He touched the ring around his eye and said, "You don't want your face to go numb."

"Yes dad." She moved the scope so the cloth sack she was aiming for fell in the center of the crosshairs. Then she closed her eyes and felt the wind whipping her hair. After a slight shift to the left, she pressed her finger against the trigger. As she fired the gun, the wind died. The rifle cracked as it spat out a steel bullet, and her ears rang from the retort. The bullet flew wide of the sack and buried itself in the trunk of the tree.

"You have to be more patient, Chihiro," he said. "Sniping is all about patience. There are some shots I've waited hours before taking."

"Yeah, but dad, how am I supposed to know what the wind's going to do?"

"Use your ears. Listen to the sound of the trees rustling, and you'll know what the wind will do seconds ahead of time."

Chihiro set the sniper down and stood up. She clenched her paws and said, "That's easy for you to say dad. You don't have hair whipping around your ears."

Arkus frowned, ran a hand over his ears, and stood. "I think it's time for a snack."

He opened the box he was sitting on and took out sandwiches wrapped in cloth. Chihiro took hers, a glob of tauros beef and cheri berries wedged between two firm, nutty pieces of bread. She took a bite and savored the spices sizzling on her tongue.

"Do we have any of those oran berries left?" she asked.

Arkus dug around the basket and pulled out two bottles of water and more sandwiches. "No, that's all that's in there. I guess we'll have to get more."

Once they finished the sandwiches and drank the water, they wrapped up the box and lay back on the long, springy grass. Chihiro turned towards her father and asked, "Did your father teach you how to shoot?"

"No, he didn't," Arkus said as he stared at the clouds.

"Your mom then? What was she like?"

"I never knew either of my parents."

"Oh." Chihiro frowned and turned away. She reached out and stroked the long, sleek barrel of the rifle. "Then who taught you?"

A gust of wind rustled the grass between them. Arkus looked down at his long, trimmed red claws and scraped them against each other.

"Nolan did. He was my master."

Chihiro looked at him, brow furrowed with thought. Part of her warned against probing further. After a moment, she asked, "What was he like?"

"Stubborn, stern, and impossibly patient."

"What kind of pokemon was he? Was he like me?"

Arkus placed a hand over his eyes. "No, um, he wasn't. He was… a grovyle." He sat up and looked at the trees. Their branches creaked and groaned as the wind tossed them around.

Chihiro sat up and tapped him on the shoulder. He flinched and sat up.

"Dad, are you okay?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine. Just spacing out." His brow furrowed, then a smile lit up his face and he turned towards her. "Do you want to know how I got this ring around my eye?"

"Wait, you mean that wasn't always there?"

"Oh no. I got this when I was about your age. It was in the middle of a hunting expedition. I found a pack of tauros and decided to take one. So, I set up my rifle on the other side of a field and shot one."

Chihiro leaned closer and asked, "Then what happened?"

Arkus smiled and threw open his arms. "They came running at me, snorting and roaring as they tore up the field. In a panic, my hands fumbled with the gun and I shot a second one in the leg. I shot a third in the jaw, but the fourth one got so close to me all I could do was shoot it dead center in the horns. That didn't kill it, but it made it throw up its head, and it passed right over me, its hoof stamping an inch from my ear." Arkus swung his fist through the air next to his head. "As it was running over me, I shot it in the stomach, and it fell on me, pressing the scope of my rifle into my eye and making this ring."

"So that's how it happened? Why did your fur turn white?"

Arkus touched the ring and said, "I don't know. It just happened."

"How did you get out from under the tauros?"

Arkus looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to graze the treetops, and the wind carried the faintest hint of nightfall.

"We should get back. You have school tomorrow, after all."

"Are you sure? I hardly did any shooting."

Arkus grinned and tossed his hair over his shoulder. "I thought you didn't like target practice. Also, is school going well?"

Chihiro looked down at her feet and said, "Yes dad, school's great."

"Good. Just remember to tell me if anything happens."

From the grassy cliff, it would have been a day's walk back to the city, but Arkus filled his claws with dark power and sliced a hole through the air, opening up into their living room. Chihiro stepped through first, and then Arkus sealed the hole as he passed through.

They stepped out behind a large wooden table that sat in the center of the living room. On one side was a long leather couch, and on the other, a large wood-paneled television with a six inch screen and two dials. The television crackled and hissed as a black and white image of a reporter recounted the evening news.

Alicia stood in the kitchen, flipping croquettes in a frying pan. When Chihiro bumped against the table, she set the pan down and turned towards them.

"How was target practice Chihiro?"

"Fine mom. Hey, did you know how dad got that ring around his eye?"

"Yes sweetie. Why, did he tell you?"

"He did." Chihiro placed her hands on her hips and said, "And I told you not to call me sweetie anymore. That's a little girl name."

"Alright Chihiro. The croquettes are just about done, so if you're still hungry, they'll be waiting." She plucked them out of the pan onto a ceramic plate and placed it on the kitchen counter. Chihiro tried grabbing one, but the heat made her drop it.

"Chihiro, what have I told you about patience?" Arkus asked as she sucked on her burnt fingers.

"But I'm hungry now and they smell so good." She took a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water. Then she plucked a croquette and dropped it in the glass, splashing around water and cursing at her burnt fingers. After a few seconds, she took out the croquette, placed it in her mouth, and drank all the water.

"Aw man, the breading's soggy," she complained after she swallowed.

"Like I said: patience."

"Jeez dad, it's always patience this and patient that. For someone who loves to talk about patience, you hardly have any."

"Of course I'm patient." Arkus slid his claws across the counter and said, "I've been waiting twelve years for you to learn some patience."

"Whatever." Chihiro walked into her room, closed the door, and pulled a book out from under her bed. As she flipped to the bookmark, she heard her mother say, "I think we should talk."

"One of those talks?" Arkus asked. Chihiro could imagine him looking at her door as he said, "Into the bedroom then."

Chihiro waited for the sound of the bedroom door closing. Then she peeked underneath her door, parting the carpet so she could see down the hall. Once she was sure the hallway was empty, she opened the door a crack at a time, glancing at the walls and ceiling. She tiptoed down the hallway and pressed her ear against the side of the door.

A faint crackling sound came from the barrier built into the bedroom's walls. She glanced at the door before closing her eyes and making her thoughts fall silent. She focused on her breathing, each rush of air passing through her lungs. Her heartbeat slowed to a soft, gentle rhythm, and her ears tingled with a viscous heat like warm honey.

"It's going to happen any day now, so you might as well tell her now," Alicia said. "It'll scare her if she doesn't know."

"It'll still scare her once we tell her. We should give her more time."

"We don't have much time," Alicia snapped. "My engagement band reacts to her presence more and more. There are times it feels like it'll burn my fur."

"Yes, but she's far off from using the Aura. She has very little talent in listening to the world around her, and if she can't listen, then she can't feel it."

Chihiro pressed her ear closer to the door and smiled. She finally had the reason her father was having her practice sniping.

"Are you sure about that? She can have sensitive hearing when she wants to."

She heard one of them stand up from the bed, and she ran back to her room in a panic. She gently closed the door and returned to her book, listening out the door. She heard one of them walk down the hall and stop in front of her room before going back. A minute later, both parents left the room. Alicia went to the store, and Arkus told her good night before leaving for City Hall.

Once she heard the elevator ding in the hallway, Chihiro closed her door and sat cross-legged on her bed. She set the book on her lap and closed her eyes.

"Come on, just like dad does," she told herself. "Patience. Listen."

She felt a warm, vibrant sensation gathering in her ears, and she reached for it. She held her hand over her book and willed it to float. Nothing happened, and though she tried making the warmth flow through her body, or around her, turning to ice or burning her nerves, she couldn't make the book move. She growled and threw the book across the room. Then she pulled the covers over herself and fell asleep.

Chapter 2: Research Agent Beta-Five (RAB5)

The Beta Complex of Sinex's Laboratories held numerous genetic experiments, most of them frozen in the lab's labyrinthine cryo chambers. Other rooms were given over to spectroscopic equipment and computers programmed for genetic analysis. Research agents worked tended the machines at all hours and monitored their output. Five rooms housed current genetic projects, including the new research proceeding on specimens collected from the Delta Incident. The µ Project was one such endeavor and had already undergone several iterations, from the aborted 1.3 to the mentally insane, self-destructive 1.8. However, for the second series of tests, they had stitched together the messy, multi-branched DNA into a single strand, and the result was a stable life-form, project µ2.0.

Beta-Five monitored the genetic sampling of project µ2.0 as it was subjected to high-intensity UV radiation. Despite the bombardment of photons, the subject's genome remained stable.

"Thymine dimerization is not occurring," he reported. "No anomalies detected in 2.0's genetic structure."

"Alright then, shut it off," Beta Director Lammers ordered. The tall, gaunt man wore a pristine gray lab coat. His long black hair flowed around his ears, and his thin, bony hands were jammed into his pockets.

Beta-Five, like all the other agents, had every trace of hair surgically removed. He wore a plain white lab coat with his number and station plastered on the front and back. His black lab boots squeaked on the hard metal floor anytime he turned, and his pockets clattered and bulged with all the equipment crammed inside of them. However, he also had a birthmark under his left eye, a blotchy red triangle that pointed towards his jaw line. He liked to imagine it looked like the Sinex Phoenix, but none of the agents agreed with him.

"Get 2.0 cleaned off, feed it, and administer the intelligence tests. Then take another MRI and blood sample. I'll have Beta-Eight help you."

"Yes sir," Beta-Five said with a salute. He grabbed the water and acetone solutions off a shelf, took a clean set of towels out of a bin, balanced a clipboard on top of his arms, and entered µ2.0's chamber. The room had a bed, a thin wooden table, and two stools. On one wall was a bookshelf, crammed with Dr. Seuss children's books, grade school textbooks, and a copy of Tolkien's The Hobbit. Another shelf held a book of mazes, a Rubik's cube, and other puzzles.

Once Beta-Five entered the room, µ2.0 stood up from the bed. It held its thin, muscular, purple arms out to the sides and waited for the wash. Beta-Five dipped one towel in the acetone and scrubbed its body, taking care not to get any liquid in its large, bulbous purple eyes or the membranous ears at the sides of its head. Once he finished scrubbing its long, dark, fleshy tail, Beta-Five cleaned its hairless skin a second time with a towel of water and then dried it off, rubbing gently at the delicate skin around its collarbone and shins.

µ2.0 sat down at the table once it was clean, awaiting the next portion of its daily routine. Beta-Five took the Rubik's cube off his shelf, tucked it into his lab coat, turned his back on the test subject, and twisted it until the colors were jumbled up. He took a stopwatch out of his pocket as he set the cube on the table. Once µ2.0 picked it up, he started the stopwatch. The project's three stubby fingers probed the surface of the cube, rotating it as its bulbous eyes scanned the pattern of colors. Then, with a rapid series of hand movements, it solved the cube. Beta-Five wrote the final time of 47.8 seconds on his clipboard and returned the cube to the shelf.

The remaining tests went by swiftly, and each time, µ2.0 surpassed its previous scores by a slim margin. Once he was finished, Beta-Eight walked in, carrying a long syringe.

"Have you finished with the cleaning?" he asked.

"Everything is ready," Beta-Five answered. "It's a blood sample and an MRI today."

At the sight of the syringe, µ2.0 held out its arm and looked away. Beta-Eight plunged the needle in, and µ2.0 winced as its thin, blue blood was drawn. Beta-Five rubbed disinfectant around the needle's entry point and wrapped it in gauze.

They led µ2.0 out of its chamber to the MRI room down the hall. It lay down on the bed and sat still as the image was taken. Beta-Five cycled through µ2.0's brain, a structure like a shriveled apple covered in bumps, and compared it to the previous month's image.

"No signs of deterioration or hemorrhaging," Beta-Five reported as he turned the machine off. "Looks just like last month's."

"Good," Beta-Eight said. "Dinner's about ready, so you better hurry if you want it hot."

Beta-Eight left the room, leaving Beta-Five with the project. He escorted it back to its room, but when he turned to leave, it tugged on his lab coat and pulled a book from the shelf.

Beta-Five pondered the situation. He didn't have orders to read to project µ2.0 today. Furthermore, if he took the time to read, he would likely miss out on the pot roast. He walked towards the door, but then he thought of the orders to keep the project psychologically healthy. The Director would be furious if it committed suicide like 1.8. He shuddered as he thought of the creature smacking its own head against a wall until its brains seeped out of the cracks in its skull.

He turned around and took the book from µ2.0's hands. It was Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches. He sat down on the bed, and it sat next to him, craning over his shoulder as it looked at the words as he read.

"But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches would brag 'We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.' With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and snort 'We'll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!' And whenever they met some, when they were out walking, they'd hike right on past them without even talking."

Once he was finished, Beta-Five returned the book to the shelf and ran down the hallways to the communal cafeteria. He raced to the food trays, but he was too late. All that remained of the pot roasts was some drippings in the pan. With a sigh of resignation, Beta-Five took some cold broiled mushrooms, soggy steamed broccoli, and lumpy mashed potatoes, dumping a generous portion of drippings over each.

As he sat down at a table, he was joined by Research Agent Alpha-Fourteen. She set her tray down next to him and handed him a small plate of pot roast.

"I knew you were going to be late when Beta-Eight returned without you, so I saved you some pot roast," she said. Though she looked like any other agent, he could recognize her by her clear, blue eyes.

"Thanks," he said. "I had an unexpected delay with the project."

"Ah, Project µ2.0. How is it doing?"

"Very well. The Director's pleased with the results. And the Alpha Project?"

"We finished testing it today, but not ready for use yet. Its capture field has a range of ten meters, and it can be distorted by gamma radiation, so we can't use it outside the lab. Still, we think it should only take twelve years before it's ready for practical application."

"Congratulations. Your Director must be very happy."

"On the contrary. He keeps griping about how we shouldn't have used the research results on the metal alloy Delta made. But without it, we would have never finished the project."

"I can't believe how quickly the project progressed."

"Me either, but that alloy was the one piece we were missing. I just wish the Director would stop complaining about it."

After that, they ate their dinner in silence. Though the food was tasty, Beta-Five kept wishing it was warm. The fat in the pot-roast was chewy, the drippings coating everything had solidified into a fatty gel, and the other food was as tantalizing as a cup of water.

Once Beta-Five was finished, he said good-night to Alpha-Fourteen, put the tray on the washing rack, and returned to the labs. µ2.0 was asleep, with cranial electrodes planted around the base of its neck. He took a look at the scans and found it in a mild resting state, its mind flickering with neural activity. He cycled through the cardio data, examining the blood composition and checking for nutritional deficiencies.

After Beta-Five submitted the daily report, he went four floors up the sleek, silent elevator and returned to his cubicle, at the far end of the hall. His room had a bed suspended from the ceiling, a desk and laptop beneath that, a metal chair, a dresser, a multifunctional kitchen unit, and a laundry chute.

Beta-Five disrobed, crammed his clothes into a plastic capsule, and placed it into the chute. It soared up with a popping sound, and then a minute later, the capsule fell into the receptacle with a muffled clink. He opened the capsule, and the smell of lilacs drifted from the washed fabric.

Once Beta-Five folded and put his clothes in the dresser, he turned to the kitchen unit and swiped his finger across its display. He cycled through his options and selected a pizza pocket. The metal box whirred and dinged, opening a slot in its midsection. On a thin metal plate was a steaming pizza pocket, dripping with cheeses and pepperoni cubes. Beta-Five pressed another button, and another door swept open, revealing a bottle of Sprecher's root beer, the top freshly snapped open and a honey-laden fog wafting from the top.

After his snack, Beta-Five dumped the dishes into the kitchen unit's sink, opened his laptop, and surfed through Sinex's internet, opening the public files on the Alpha Project. Though the abstract didn't explore any details, the premise behind the technology was the application of matter condensation, previously exploited for teleportation, to condense the wavefunction of massless particles into a constrained system, storing the energy for indefinite periods of time. Staring at the grid work of lines and circuits flowing through the spherical container, Beta-Five could hardly believe that the salvation of humanity sat in front of him on a computer screen.

Beta-Five browsed through the network's news feed, and the cultural section caught his eye. Yet another debate began over including the Pokemon anime and franchise from the old society in the cultural archives. He read further and saw that the Conglomerate yet again rejected the proposal, due to the destructive nature of the material.

Once he finished browsing through Gamma's latest breakthrough on catalytic synthesis of heterocycles, Beta-Five powered down his laptop, climbed onto his bed, and stared at the ceiling until he fell asleep.


	2. Chapters 3-4

Chapter 3: Chihiro de Arkus

Chihiro attacked the sleek, black and blue hair atop her head with a comb. Despite all the water, hair gel, and combing she applied to it over the past hour, it refused to resemble anything other than a tangle of weeds. She frowned at it in the mirror and hid as many of the stray ends as she could behind her long ears.

"Chihiro, you're going to be late for class," her father called.

"Dad, I'm fixing my hair!"

"You've been late three times this week. I don't want to have another discussion with the principal."

"Ergh, fine! I'll go to school with my hair in a mess. Happy now?"

"I'd be happier if you weren't so obsessed with how you look. Get some breakfast before you go, I don't want you complaining again during your math class."

"Yes dad." Chihiro shoved her comb into the bathroom drawer and stormed out into the kitchen. Her dad, Arkus, brushed aside his long purple hair as he slid a bowl of oatmeal across the counter. The thick white oatmeal was dotted with chocolate chips and oran berries.

"Ooh, oran berries!" she said as she spooned a glob of oatmeal into her mouth.

"Yes, your mother picked them up last night. Be sure to thank her when you get back from school."

"I will! See ya!" She flung the apartment door open and sprinted down the hallway. Her father flung the door open and shouted "Chihiro, your backpack!"

Chihiro skidded to a stop and turned around. Her father lifted the bag into the air with a dark, swirling power and shoved it forward. She caught it and tried to fling it onto her back, but the bony spikes sticking out of the back of her hands caught on the straps.

"Thanks dad!"

Chihiro's skirt swayed in the wind as she walked to school. Along the sidewalks, dozens of people walked to school or work, carrying suitcases and backpacks. Chihiro wove through the sea of people, stepping swiftly around the shuffling feet and swinging packs. As she walked up the school's sidewalk, she glanced up at the school's clock and gasped. She sprinted through the doors, skidded down the hall, and leapt into her desk a second before the bell went off.

Some of the students behind her snickered. The elderly ursaring teacher, sitting at his desk and eating a granola bar, gave Chihiro a bemused look as she smoothed out her skirt. "Had another late start, Chihiro?" he asked, tweaking his glasses.

"Yes sir. Please forgive my tardiness."

The ursaring stroked the gray hair underneath his chin and stood up. "Well, since you weren't technically late, I'll let it slide this time. Alright students, let's review the lexical function of adverbs. Now, can someone tell me what words an adverb can modify?"

Chihiro stared at the white wall just above the blackboard as the teacher wrote down the rules of adverbials. As she counted the number of cracks that pointed to the right, a lombre tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey," he whispered, "Any luck getting accepted into the zoo yet?"

"Shut it," she hissed back.

"What? I'm sure your real parents are in there somewhere."

"Seth!" the teacher shouted, rapping his teaching baton against the blackboard. "What did I tell you about talking in class? And you're harassing another student as well."

"I didn't mean anything by it," the lombre moaned.

"Sure you didn't," he growled. "See me for detention after class. And bring your things up to the front of the class as well. You'll be sitting there for the rest of the week."

The lombre gave her a middle finger as he threw his books onto the desk at the front of the class. As soon as the teacher turned to the chalkboard, Seth turned and glared at her.

After math and science, they were let out for recess. Chihiro walked straight for the monkey bars on the school playground. A peaky, scraggly-haired zoroark waved at her from atop the bars.

"Hey Chihiro! Were you late to class again?"

"Almost, Seri," she replied, clambering onto the monkey bars and sitting next to him. "Made it to my desk the second before the bell rang."

"That's lucky. You almost got a detention."

Chihiro frowned and leaned back on the monkey bars. "Yeah, I suppose."

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Did Mr. Renfield give you a detention for something else?"

"No, Seth was picking on me again."

"He got a detention?"

"Yeah."

"Then what are you sad for? Just imagine him sitting there, scribbling a hundred lines onto the board."

Chihiro leaned up and smiled at him. "Yeah, you're right. He'll probably be complaining about his hand after ten lines."

"I'm always right," Serisen said, puffing out his chest.

"That's not what your history test said."

"Pfft. It's all garbage anyways. That's what mom told me."

"My parents said it wasn't right too, but we still have to learn it."

"Yeah, whatever. You wanna hang out after school today?"

Chihiro wrapped her legs around the monkey bars and swung forward. Her skirt fell down her waist, exposing her legs up to her hips. Serisen stared at her for a moment before blushing and turning away.

"My place? We could grab an ice cream later."

"Sure, just don't get yourself in detention."

She didn't. The rest of the school day went by without incident, and once the final bell rang, Chihiro swept her books into her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and sprinted out the door. She waited for Serisen out front, and they walked home together. Her father was gone, but her mother welcomed them home and offered them some leftover croquettes. Though cold, the fried crust retained their crunchy exteriors, and the fat inside solidified into a creamy residue that melted in their mouths.

"Thanks Mrs. Renera, they're delicious," Serisen said around a mouthful.

"Yeah, thanks mom. We were going to get ice cream, is that okay?"

"Sure, just be home before dark, and make sure you get your homework done, okay Chihiro?"

"Thanks mom!" Chihiro got her purse from her room and checked the wads of money folded inside. Then she grabbed Serisen's arm and pulled him out the door. As they left, Alicia poked her head out the door and said, "Serisen, be sure to tell your mother I said hi, alright?"

"Yes Mrs. Renera, I will!"

Down the street, sitting between a burger joint and a small clothing boutique, was Duluth's Ice Cream Parlor. Yellow and blue lights danced along the edges of an ice cream cone perched over the wide glass doors. Inside, a long gleaming metal bar and several round metal tables featured holes in the counter to hold their massive waffle cones. Tiny red stools surrounded each surface, many of which were occupied by toddlers slathering ice cream across their cheeks and mothers wiping away the mess with fragile paper napkins.

Over on the far wall were tall booths with red upholstery. Each one had a set of doors that could be latched shut, with just a crack left open for employees to swipe them open with a metal card. Several booths were taken by teens sipping milkshakes, the doors sealed against the giddy laughter and exasperated sighs of the main area. Chihiro stood on her tiptoes and peeked over the closed doors. Chihiro could see their relationship status at a glance – shared shakes for couples and separate for friends. There were quite a few shared cups in the store that day.

The line was short, a small gaggle of torchic chirping and squeaking as their mother picked out ice cream flavors. Once they moved aside, Chihiro and Serisen ordered separate milkshakes and took them to an open booth. There was a noticeable dampening of the sound as the doors closed, yet the buzz of the ice cream parlor remained in the back of her ear.

"Ugh, I thought Mr. Renfield would never stop talking!" Serisen moaned. "All that algebra crap is making my brain hurt."

"Well, at least it was quieter today," Chihiro said with a frown. She looked down at her milkshake and flopped the straw around, watching it make ruts in the smooth, milky surface.

"Yeah, Seth is such a jerk. Why don't you have the teacher do something, or tell your dad?"

Chihiro slid her milkshake aside and looked at the wall. "You know I'm not supposed to let any of the students find out he's my dad."

"That doesn't mean you should put up with it. I'm sure he would think of something." Serisen slid her milkshake in front of her and said, "Just think about how much better it would be if he was in another class, or better yet, expelled from the school. All you'd have to do is ask him."

Chihiro flung her milkshake across the table and shouted, "I don't want his help!" Then she placed her arms on the table and buried her head into her elbow. Serisen picked up the toppled glass and covered the sticky mess with a pile of napkins, and then he tapped Chihiro on the arm.

"Hey, what's wrong? It isn't Seth, is it?"

Chihiro pounded fist on the table. "I'm so sick of them not telling me anything!" she said, her voice muffled by her arm. Tears dripped down her fur, and she squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to hold them in. "I know they have secrets, and I heard them talking last night. They're always talking, but they never tell me anything! If I'm adopted, why don't they just tell me?"

Serisen first peeked outside the doors and saw the outburst went unnoticed by the rest of the parlor. Then he leaned forward and whispered to Chihiro.

"One time, I snuck a book out of my mom's cabinet and read it. It was one of those old history books, a real one. I only flipped through a few pages before mom caught me, but I saw a picture of you inside of it. Mom made me swear not to tell you."

Chihiro looked up and rubbed the tears out of her eyes. "Why would I be in a history book?"

"I don't know, but it looked like you. Maybe if you asked them about it, they'd tell you."

Chihiro gave him a smile and said "thanks." Then she looked into her empty glass and tipped it over her mouth, shaking a few drops into her mouth.

"Here, have mine," Serisen said, pushing his shake forward.

"Why don't we share it?" Chihiro asked. She moved across the table, placed her straw in the cup, and took a sip. Serisen slid over to the wall. He looked down at the cup, glanced around the parlor, and took a small sip, leaning across the seat and keeping his face away from hers.

"Did your mom tell you anything else?" Chihiro asked between sips.

"No, she got very mad at me. She grounded me for a week and took the book away, and I hadn't been able to find it."

Their straws made a rasping sound as they drained the last of their milkshake. Serisen tipped the cup back and kept sipping, but he lost his balance and fell to the side. His face pressed into hers, and their lips came together for a brief moment before he flung himself back against the wall.

"I am so sorry, I totally didn't mean for that to happen," he blurted. The fur around his face stood on end, and the skin around his cheeks reddened. "Honest, I'm so sorry."

Chihiro's lips tingled, and her face grew warm. She stopped for a moment, listening to her heart race, and then she slowly leaned forward. Serisen backed away, and he crammed himself against the back wall. Then Chihiro placed a hand on his shoulder and kissed him. She held them together for a few seconds before backing off and brushing her clothes flat.

"Thanks for the shake," she said before walking out of the booth. Over the din of the parlor, she heard Serisen say "whoa" as she left. That word brought a smile to her face and made her feet float like feathers.

Once she got home, she had forgotten about asking her parents about the book. Instead, she breezed through her homework and spent the rest of the night staring at the ceiling, wondering if she and Serisen were a couple now.

Chapter Four: RAB5

The beeping of his kitchen unit woke Beta-Five. By the time he clambered out of bed and flung on his clothes and lab coat, the unit had already prepared a cup of tea and a sausage biscuit. As he crammed the biscuit into his mouth, he flipped the laptop open and checked his mail. A notification from the director gave him the day's schedule — first to continue exploration of the µ genome, then to do the daily screening for Project µ and lastly, to oversee Project ν's field augmentation.

Beta-Five drained the last of his coffee and glanced at the digital clock on his kitchen unit. The time was just after six. He touched a panel on the wall, and a projection of a window appeared on his wall. Though the room was miles below ground, the window mimicked the spatter of rain and the howling of a late autumn wind directly above the facility.

He switched the panel off and walked down to the genetics lab in the lower levels. Four other researchers worked on Quantum Scanning Microscopes, analyzing the expanded three-dimensional genetic structure of Sample µ as they sliced it apart with enzymes. They muttered and scribbled on tablets as they mused over the cutting order and hastily quenched excess reactions.

Beta-Five sat down at an unused QSM and turned it on. The machine whirred to life and isolated a single genetic strand. Though the writhing mass of double helices was classified as a single chromosome, it looked as though thousands of chromosomes were mashed together into a single strand, with it branching and splitting off into countless directions.

He introduced splitting agents 1 through 7, watching the thoroughly examined strands get torn to shreds by tiny molecular bubbles and float out of view. Then he twirled the display around, analyzing the structure. He introduced a minute quantity of hydrochloric acid and watched the intermolecular attractions break apart, unfolding some pieces of the molecule and pressing others closer together. He waited for an opening, and when he saw one emerging, he attacked it with enzyme 14, cutting it off at twenty molecules. They floated through the gap – too many – and though he tried to quench the reaction, the enzyme slashed the inner structure to ribbons before he could stop it.

With a curse on his tongue, Beta-Five ordered the QSM to scrap the sample and prepare a new one. He mused over the past fourteen years of research on the genome and the frustratingly slow progress they've made on the inner core. All the exterior material held the genomes of other pokemon, with over 95% of known species fully categorized and mapped. The µ genome even contained multiple mutated copies of each subgenome, allowing it to mimic any eye color, skin tone, and other physiological traits. Yet, the inner core, the key to understanding how the genome worked, remained out of reach, too well-protected by the outer shell to analyze thoroughly and too fragile to trim away.

Beta-Five knew the only way to reach the core was to selectively target specific sites. But without a means of controlling atomic flow, the process was left to chance. Electromagnets, thermal activity, acidity, photon bombardment: all ended in failure.

He corrected himself. Thymine dimerization proved promising, but they couldn't selectively bombard a single site with a single stream of photons. Aiming the lasers proved too difficult, and after a year, the project was scrapped for testing the clones.

His mind remained fixated on the thymine dimerization. Though Beta-Five tried to concentrate on enzyme cracking, he couldn't stop thinking about how easily they could selectively cut at dimerized sites. All they needed was a way to aim the lasers. He flung the visual interface around and enlarged the image, studying how the system tracked the coordinates of the molecule. Then he knew how to aim the laser.

"Beta-Twelve, I need to requisition a photon laser. I'm going to attempt dimerization."

"That old project? I admit it would work well, but we could never aim it properly."

"We never tried programming the aiming into the visual interface, did we?"

The research agent scratched his balding head and asked, "The interface? How would you do that?" Then his face lit up and he shouted "Of course! I'll get the Arduino boards and a programmable arm as well."

As Beta-Twelve ran out the doors and Beta-Nine followed him, Beta-Five opened up the QSM's software editor and scrolled through the coordinate programming. He scrolled down to the end of the section and input a new string of commands for a linear plot on the system, calculating a trajectory through the containment space from a single point of origin. Once he was finished, he brought up the visual interface and plugged in angle values for the trajectory, watching the purple line flash across a thymine pair near the exterior. Then he modified the code so the point of origin could be changed, and he changed variables until he isolated another thymine pair.

Beta-Nine returned with the mechanical arm and an Arduino board. Beta-Five plugged the Arduino into the QSM and attached the mechanical arm, then he opened up the Arduino's interface and integrated the QSM's coordinate system into calculations for adjusting the mechanical arm's angle and position. Moments later, Beta-Twelve returned with a UV laser and attached it to the mechanical arm. Minutes later, they watched a thymine pair fuse together under the bombardment of photons.

"We did it!" Beta-Nine shouted. "Rab-Five, you're a genius! How did you program that in so quickly?"

"Most of the programming's already built into these machines, the trick is making them work together," Beta-Five answered as he flooded the chamber with dimerase, snipping off a chunk of DNA at the site of the dimer. Once the cleaving was finished, he adjusted the coordinates of the laser and snipped off another section of DNA. After an hour, the structure had been trimmed down to the backbone and a few stubborn strands of excess material. He snipped them off with a weak enzyme and set them aside for additional analysis before zooming in on the backbone. It wasn't a clean double helix structure as expected; instead, it resembled a tightly packed structure, woven together too strongly for any molecule to worm its way inside.

"Any thoughts on how to open the core?" Beta-Twelve asked.

Beta-Five glanced at the clock. His stomach grumbled as he saw it was just after three o' clock. "I'm afraid I'm out of time. I have to tend to 2.0."

"Ah yes, get yourself some lunch first. We can take over from here."

The cafeteria was empty, save for a few maintenance agents clearing the buffet tables. Beta-Five tapped one on the shoulder, and a few minutes later, he was handed a ham sandwich wrapped in plastic. He ate as he walked to the µ Research Lab. He swiftly went down the daily checklist, recording progress on intelligence tests and monitoring the subject's food intake.

When he turned to leave, µ2.0 tugged at his lab coat. The creature opened its mouth and moved its lips, its throat squirming as it struggled to make a sound.

"M-may I have more books please?" it asked. "There are more, right?"

Beta-Five ran into the other room and flipped through the guidebook. The section on communication took fifty whole pages, outlining different dialogue scenarios. Thirty pages in, Beta-Five found the dialogue on requests for items, and it said to delay the conversation until the director approved the request.

"I'll speak with the director," he said as he left the room. He took his tablet out of his coat pocket and brought up the floor map of the labs. The director was in the genetics lab, along with four other RA's. Beta-Five walked down the corridors to the genetics lab and walked inside after knocking.

Doctor Lammers looked up from the visual display and stood to greet Beta-Five. "Excellently done!" he shouted as he shook Beta-Five's hand. "This is why I think we should allow transfers between departments. Imagine how much sooner we could have perfected this technique if we had an Alpha or Gamma engineer.

"Thank you sir, but I have another matter to address with you. Subject µ2.0 spoke and asked for more books."

"It did, did it?" The director ran a hand through his hair and said, "I'll have an agent pick out some books then. Why don't you get some dinner and join me in the ν Test Area?"

Beta-Five nodded and went towards the door. However, his hand paused on the door handle. As he stood there, staring down at the knob's gleaming surface, he struggled to articulate what made him want to turn around, what question sat on his tongue for the director. He turned the knob, slowly, listening to the metal rasp within the door, jarring loose his thoughts with its dissonant groan. Then the question came, and his hand paused, the knob halfway to the open position. He thought over the implications of asking the director this question, but then he decided he was being paranoid and turned around.

"Actually, sir, would you mind if I got 2.0 the books?"

The director turned and waved his hair out of his face. He rubbed his chin for a moment and said, "Go ahead. However, let me remind you not to get too attached to the test subject."

Beta-Five clenched his teeth when he realized he made a mistake in asking, but he let himself relax as he said, "Yes sir. I merely wished to ensure the subject's continued psychological wellbeing."

The director smiled and replied, "Your foresight is appreciated. Feel free to select books from the library upstairs, then get yourself some dinner."

Beta-Five took the elevator and walked into the library. The books were neatly stored in tightly packed shelves, with barely enough room to walk sideways in the aisles. He gazed at the massive selection and pondered what books to choose. One section held a variety of children's books, however, the fantasy section caught his eye. He had often seen µ2.0 reading The Hobbit, so he grabbed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, along with a handful of Piers Anthony novels, a pile of Tad Williams, and an armful of R. A. Salvatore. He placed them on a cart and had them checked out before returning to the µ Research Lab. He pushed the cart into the room and left it next to the bookshelf.

"Here you go. I picked some I thought you would like."

"Thank you," µ2.0 said, picking The Fellowship of the Ring off the shelf. As it flipped through the pages, it asked, "Your name is Beta-Five, yes?"

"It is."

"And my name is two-point-oh, right?"

"µ2.0," Beta-Five corrected. "They call you 2.0 for short."

"Mewtwo… I see. Thank you Beta-Five."

"Let me know if you need any more books."

Beta-Five glanced at the clock on his tablet and sighed. He jogged to the elevator and hurried into the cafeteria, only to find the maintenance agents putting away the lukewarm food. He snuck a few pieces of soggy meat and cauliflower out of metal trenchers and scraped them into his mouth. Once he wiped the grease from his mouth, he dashed back to the elevator and briskly walked to the ν complex.

The whole wing was insulated with ten inches of lead, barricaded with four sets of heavy doors. Outside, large bulky hazmat suits hung on hooks. Beta-Five clambered into one and fastened the four layers tight, pressing his suit against the vacuum seal to check for leaks. Then the outermost layers of his suit were filled with pressurized Xenon while the innermost was pumped full of concentrated oxygen. Beta-Five felt a euphoric rush as his lungs swelled with the sudden influx of oxygen.

Beta-Five waddled through each set of doors, each set spraying him down with acetone and an anti-bacterial mixture before evacuating the air in the chamber. Once the chamber was ventilated with purified air, the last set of doors opened, and Beta-Five clambered into the main testing chamber. A vigoroth was strapped to a table in the center of the room, perforated with hundreds of diodes and several IV's. It stared up at the ceiling and weakly tugged at the restraints. Over its head was a metal dish, connected with a set of heavy wires to a bulky computer on the far side of the room. At the computer's core, floating in a glass canister of preservatives, was a tiny glob of flesh, oozing a black, tar-like substance that dissolved into the canister's liquid. Dozens of tiny wires poked into the flesh, and a nebulous energy seemed to seep into the metal.

The director stood over the vigoroth, analyzing the pokemon's breathing rate and blood pressure. The Then he turned towards Beta-Five and gestured him to approach the table.

"This ought to be interesting," Doctor Lammers said through the hazmat's com system. "I can't believe this enigma has forced us to perform such a radical experiment."

"Shall I prepare the amplification?" Beta-Five asked.

"Please do. Move into the other room once the countdown starts."

Beta-Five approached the machine and yanked a few heavy levers to the on position. Then, on a screen, the number three-hundred beeped and flashed with each subtraction of one. Beta-Five quickly joined the director in the alternate room, watching the number sink through six inches of lead-infused glass.

"What is the magnification factor?" Beta-Five asked.

"A hundred-fold magnification," Doctor Lammers answered. "I thought we'd start with a smaller dose and increase the magnification until we observe something."

They waited in silence as the number dwindled into double digits, then single. Beta-Five felt sweat dripping down his neck as the number reached zero. The machine lit up with intense, bright red lights, bathing the room in a crimson glow. The wires throbbed, filling the room with an intense hum that shook the glass.

The vigoroth groggily stared at the lights, then its eyes grew unfocused, its jaw went slack, and it promptly fell asleep. As it snored, it moaned and yanked on its restraints, burying its face into the pillow.

"Anything on the EEG?" the director asked. "What kind of sleep state is the subject in?"

On the display monitor to the left, Beta-Five sorted through the medical inputs. The breathing rate was elevated, the heart-rate had nearly doubled, and its blood contained high concentrations of epinephrine. However, it was the EEG scans that made Beta-Five's jaw drop.

"I've – I've never seen anything like this before," he whispered into the com.

"What's going on, Beta-Five?"

"Stop the test. We need to check the magnification."

"Understood." Doctor Lammers hit a red button, and the machine shuddered to a stop. They clambered out of the room and approached the table. The vigoroth was still asleep, its short, panicked breaths rasping through its throat. It reeked of sweat and fear.

"It's permanently comatose," Beta-Five explained. "There's no way that could be accomplished with a mere hundredfold of the signal."

Beta-Five walked over to the machine and opened up the diagnostics report. The energy output from the machine confirmed the magnification factor. He muttered to himself as he investigated the hyperbolic dish suspended above the restraining chair.

"We've been treating the ν sample's energy signature as a form of electromagnetic radiation, correct? If it was, then the transmitter's hyperbolic shape would relay a uniform field. However, considering this is Darkrai's unique energy we're dealing with, it's likely the signal could be some form of particle emission instead, in which case, the hyperbolic shape concentrates the signal at the focal length. Considering the shape of the transmitter, the focal point should be within the cranium of the subject, maximizing the signal. Therefore, if we replace the transmitter with a flat metal sheet, we should see optimal magnification."

"There's a flat transmitter in the drawer over there," the director said. "I'll have them bring in the next subject."

As the raichu, wrapped in insulating material, was strapped to the chair, Beta-Five replaced the transmitter and ran another set of diagnostic checks. Once again, they retreated to the back room waiting for the five minute timer to reach its end. Then the machine whirred to life, and Beta-Five immediately saw the results on the EEG, a loop of neural signals trapping the mind in a ceaseless torment, but unlike the last trial, this signal experienced interference from other brain signals.

"Turn it off," Beta-Five said. The director hit the button, and after a minute, the brain signals entered into a normal deep-sleep pattern.

"Excellent work, Beta-Five," Doctor Lammers said, shaking his hand through eight layers of lead. "Compile the results in a report and call it a night. We'll have a lot more testing tomorrow."

By the time he returned to his room, it was just past ten. He threw off his lab coat, took a quick shower, heated up a hot pocket, and, hours later, fell asleep on his laptop, the a stream of b's worming their way through the end of his report.


	3. Chapters 5-6

Chapter Five: Chihiro de Arkus

As Chihiro sprinted down the street to school, she swore at herself for hitting the snooze button on her alarm. As she came up to the front of the school, she saw she had thirty seconds left before the bell. With a deep breath, she shoved the doors open and raced down the hall. The bell rang the moment her hand touched the doorknob. Chihiro paused outside the door and lowered her head. Then she twisted the knob and sullenly walked inside. However, Mr. Renfield was gone. She glanced around the room and smiled as she took her seat.

"Lucky break," the sneasel next to her whispered. "Mr. Renfield hasn't gotten here yet."

"Good. You won't tell him, will you?" she whispered back.

"Of course not. But he might be a different story," she said, glancing towards Seth. Chihiro looked towards him and saw him glaring at her with a slight smile on his face.

The door opened, and Chihiro jerked around to see him. He briskly walked to his desk, wiping sweat from his brow and adjusting his glasses.

"Sorry I'm late, class, the maintenance key went missing, and we had to look for it. So, let's begin attendance."

"Mr. Renfield, Mr. Renfield, Chihiro was late to class!" Seth blurted out. Chihiro felt her heart sink into her stomach as Mr. Renfield looked at her.

"Is this true, Chihiro?" he asked, tilting his head down so his eyes were above his glasses.

Chihiro looked down at her desk and twiddled her thumbs. Sweat pooled in her palms, and her heart thudded against her ribcage.

"Yes sir," she said.

"I see," he said, removing his glasses and cleaning them on his shirt. "Thank you for being honest. I'll let it go for today."

"Oh, uh, thanks!" She smiled to herself as she dug some books out of her backpack.

Seth slammed his hands on his desk and said, "But that's not fair! She was late to class, she should get in trouble!"

"I hadn't started class yet," Mr. Renfield rumbled, glaring at the lombre through his glasses. "Now please be quiet so I can take attendance."

"Yes sir." Seth glared at her as Mr. Renfield called out the first name on his list. Once attendance was done, Mr. Renfield told the class to return the maintenance key to a teacher if they found it and reminded them to not go up to the rooftop. He grumbled about the rusty metalwork up there as he began the grammar lecture.

A few hours of classes later, the Chihiro ate lunch and went out for recess. Serisen was waiting for her on the monkey bars. He scooted over as she clambered up and sat down.

"I didn't see you in front of the school today," he said. "Were you late?"

"I was, but Mr. Renfield let it go."

"Wow, that's lucky."

"Yeah, he was late to class, so that's why."

"Mrs. Tully was late too," he said, clicking his shoes against the bars. "The maintenance key's gone missing. She thinks one of the students took it, and she even had us turn out our pockets."

As Chihiro started to reply, she heard a harsh, metallic rasping sound coming from the roof. She stood up on the monkey bars and tried to peek over the roof, but she couldn't see anything.

"What's the matter? See something?"

"I thought I heard something coming from the roof. I'm going to get a closer look."

She leapt off the monkey bars and walked over to the school's walls. She craned her head up and focused, trying to hear what was up there. She heard a few footsteps, then the sound of running water.

Serisen walked over and stood next to her. "Hey, I think I hear something too," he said. "Do you think someone's up there?"

"Ssh, I'm trying to hear."

She heard water sloshing around, getting closer to the edge of the roof. Then, after a gasp of pain, she heard a bucket clatter against the school's gutter. The rusty metal creaked, groaned, and cracked. Her ears picked up every fracture to the point she could visualize the cracks and the water pouring from the bucket. Then, with a last sharp crack, the gutter fell from the roof towards her head. Serisen leapt out of the way, but Chihiro stayed still, transfixed by how slowly the gutter seemed to fall. She heard the wind whistling past the metal and the spray of water droplets as they bounced off the metal.

She also heard the vibrant, pulsing energy within her bones, a second heartbeat that coursed through her body. She felt power seeping into her right hand as she raised it towards the gutter, then she felt the power touch the metal, take hold of it, and suspend it in the air a foot above her head.

Chihiro had a second to marvel at her power before the water splashed into her eyes. With a surprised yelp, she flung her right hand over her eyes, throwing the gutter towards Serisen. The gutter hit him on the side of the head, and he fell to the ground. He shouted and covered the long, jagged cut on his cheek. Blood trickled down his chin and dripped onto the cement of the playground.

Once Chihiro wiped the water from her eyes, she saw Serisen crumpled on the ground and the bloody, dented piece of gutter next to him. She shouted "Oh my god, Serisen, are you alright?" and ran towards him.

"Hold on, I'll get a teacher. Just – just don't move, okay?"

Serisen moaned, sat up, and asked what happened. Some blood dripped into his mouth, and he spat it out. Chihiro whirled around, looking for a teacher, and saw Mrs. Tully standing behind her. The elderly breloom, her gray-green cap wrinkled like a morel, walked over to Serisen and inspected the cut.

"Mm. That's going to need stitches." Mrs. Tully turned towards Chihiro and asked, "What happened?"

"I – I don't know. There was someone on the roof, well, I think there was, then the gutter fell and there was all this water, and, and I stopped the gutter somehow, I have no idea how, but water got in my eyes, and I didn't see what happened then, and he was bleeding when I got the water out of my eyes."

Mrs. Tully looked up at the roof, and so did Chihiro. A bucket sat on the roof's edge, the open rim of the bucket just beyond the gutter line and its handle scraping against the wall.

"Alright then," Mrs. Tully said. "Get Mr. Renfield and Mr. Borsche. They should both be in their classrooms."

"Yes Mrs. Tully." Chihiro took one last peek at Serisen's bloodstained face before running into the school. She found Mr. Borsche, the zangoose teacher, first. He was straightening his polo and combing his long white ears. Chihiro told him there was an emergency outside and he sprinted off. Mr. Renfield, however, wasn't in his class. Chihiro looked down the hallways, but couldn't see him anywhere. Then, when she turned a corner, she heard him yelling. She stopped, went back around the corner, and listened from behind a wall.

"There's a reason the rooftop's off limits, and it's because children like you can get hurt! Now, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Chihiro peeked around the corner and saw Seth standing in front of Mr. Renfield, staring down at the floor. He mumbled "no sir" and turned away from him. Chihiro thought about listening in some more, but she thought of Serisen and decided to cut the conversation short. She backed up a few paces and then ran across the corner, stopping a few feet short of them.

"Oh, Mr. Renfield, there you are. Serisen's hurt, Mrs. Tully said to get you."

Mr. Renfield glanced at Seth before running down the hall. Chihiro followed him out the school doors and into the recess lot. Mrs. Tully was talking on the phone that was kept in a metal box on the school's wall, and Mr. Borsche was wrapping bandages around Serisen's head. The other students were gathered near the doors, watching the teachers and whispering to each other.

"What happened here?" Mr. Renfield asked.

"The gutter fell off, and Chihiro lost control of her Aura," Mr. Borsche answered as he gently tightened a knot. "A bucket of water fell onto the gutter."

"Oh really?" Mr. Renfield asked. "I just caught one of my students coming out of the maintenance door. It seems he stole the key last night after his detention."

"And that explains how the bucket got filled with water and taken to the edge of the roof. Well, this is turning into one hell of a day." Mr. Borsche glanced at Chihiro and said, "Whoops, pardon my French."

Mrs. Tully walked over and said, "I just finished talking to him. He'll be here with an ambulance in a minute."

"Who will be here?" Chihiro asked.

"Your father," she answered. "He said not to worry, he'll take care of everything."

"Oh." Chihiro looked back at the crowd of students and felt her stomach tying itself in knots. She thought about asking the teachers to get the other students inside, but as she tried to piece together the words, the wail of an ambulance siren entered the school's playground, breaking her concentration. She turned to watch the ambulance pull up next to Serisen and the teachers. Behind the ambulance was a sleek black car with tinted windows. The driver left the vehicle, walked to the back, and opened the door. Chihiro could see her father's legs through the open door, and her heart sank even lower.

"What's that car doing here?" one student asked. Chihiro forced herself to look straight ahead as she approached the car. She stared at the black carpet on the floor as she buckled her seat belt. Then the driver got back in and drove out of the school. From out the window, she saw the ambulance drive off in the other direction, sirens flashing.

"How was school today?" Arkus asked. Then he looked down and said, "I'm sorry, bad question."

Chihiro looked at him and saw her mother's engagement band on his arm. She debated asking but decided to stay silent.

A stifling silence fell between them, one that made Chihiro's skin itch. Then her father said, "Chihiro, I have to apologize. I've been trying to get you to stumble onto your powers like that, and I can't imagine you enjoyed that."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

Arkus turned towards her and said, "Did you really think I didn't notice you eavesdropping that night? I even thinned the barrier around our room so you could hear."

"Then – then why? Why didn't you tell me?"

"The Family is afraid of you." Arkus straightened his hair and said, "They wanted to kill you the moment they knew what you were, but I stopped them. To keep them happy, I had to swear not to teach you how to use the Aura."

"The Aura?"

"Yes. I'll tell you more once we're home."

Once they were home, Chihiro and her parents went into the master bedroom. There, Arkus told her everything: his time as a human, his fight against the Family and the zoroark he killed, the Aura he wielded, the murder of the previous Father, the human uprising and their slaughter, and his transformation into the new Father. Once he was done, he asked if she had any questions. Her mind felt too blank for words, so she shook her head and left the room. Though her stomach growled, she went straight to her bed and pulled the covers over herself.

Chapter Six: RAB5

That morning, with sunshine beaming down on the earth's surface a mile above him, Beta-Five puzzled over the core of the µ Genome. Through thymine dimerization, slicing the proper points of the outer layers of the chromosome no longer proved cumbersome; however, the inner genetic material was too densely packed to form dimmers. With no other option, Beta-Five was back to the trial and error catalytic cracking, made impossibly difficult by how tightly packed the genetic material was.

In spite of the setback, he was able to study the pieces he sliced from the core. The genome he pieced together closely resembled that of the pokemon in the outer layer, yet he found a handful of striking differences that he couldn't identify.

As he collected a longer DNA strand for implantation into a bacterial cell, the alarms went off across the facility. Red sirens jutted from the ceiling and cast yellow shadows across the room. A harsh siren echoed through the hallways and rooms. Beta-Five yanked the plug out of the QSM, and he saw the other researchers doing the same.

As he ran down the hall, his tablet vibrated, giving him a message to join the Beta Director in the Conglomerate Hall. Beta-Five dashed to the central shaft of the research facility, showed his security card to two sets of guards, and took the elevator half a mile down to the Hall. The elevator car, a hexagonal prism with a sleek chrome finish, sped through the half-mile in twenty seconds. The elevator opened into a lead-lined bunker. A sleek, round metal table sat at the heart of the room, with twelve chairs circling around the table. Four of the chairs were draped with white cloth, four held Directors, and two others were taken by the Directors' chief aides.

Once Beta-Five sat next to Doctor Lammers, the elevator made its final trip, and Alpha-Fourteen strode into the room. She took the remaining seat, and the Alpha Director stood.

"Thank you for coming on such a short notice," he said. The Alpha Director was a short, squat man, with thin tufts of light blonde hair atop his head, circle-rimmed wireframe glasses, drooping brown eyes, and a squat, pudgy face. His large, meaty hands rested palms-flat on the table, and the veins in his hands bulged with each beat of his heart.

"So you raised the alarm?" the Gamma Director asked. The corners of his green eyes twitched as he forced a smile onto his face. "I trust you have the best of reasons for doing so."

"I do. An Aura signature was just detected from Palsitore. I trust you know what this means."

"It could mean lots of things," the Gamma Director said. "It could be a minor fluctuation from a crystal structure, or, or an emission from a relic. You should confirm the source before you raise the alarm."

"No, I believe the Alpha Director was quite right in bringing this to our attention," Director Lammers said. "If we have another Keith on our hands, the result could be the end of Sinex. So, Director Sheldon, I trust you've already sent out a recon team?"

"I have, and it was after I got their report that I raised the alarm," he said, glaring at the Gamma Director. "We knew Keith had a child, but we never suspected the child came before the Delta Incident. It seems the child inherited the power he used to have."

"How much of a threat is this child?" the Zeta Director asked. He straightened his long, flowing white hair and said, "Or, rather to the point, how much time do we have?"

"The child only just acquired her powers today," Director Sheldon answered. "Additionally, she can't control it yet. Thus, it would be safe to assume we have a few months at least to deal with the problem."

The Gamma Director leaned forward and said, "There's quite a bit of guesswork involved."

"We'll monitor the situation as it progresses."

"And if our agents are caught?"

Director Sheldon tightened his hands into fists and said, "Their memories have been altered. They won't get anything out of them."

"You're missing the point," Director Lammers said. "It doesn't matter how much time we have if we don't have any countermeasure to prepare."

"The Beta Director is right," Alpha-Fourteen said. "Our Project is useless outside of this facility, while the other Projects are decades from completion."

Director Sheldon frowned at Alpha-Fourteen and said, "Yes, well, it would take maybe a year to perfect the Alpha Project."

"Maybe a year?" the Gamma director asked. "Isn't that being a bit optimistic? Your last report estimated three years for completion."

"If we rush the construction, then we should get it done sooner. Besides, I don't see any of your projects having comparable progress." Director Sheldon smirked and said, "Has your quantum supercomputer finished calculating pi yet, Marcus?"

The Gamma Director's face reddened and he shouted, "It's a minor technical glitch! Another six months of troubleshooting the interface should fix it."

"Then five more years devising a question to ask it, followed by even more time taken to follow the processor's plan," the Zeta Director added. "Not to mention debugging the additional programming glitches along the way and designing a non-quantumized link-up to our current systems."

"And what, your project is doing any better, Zane?" Director Marcus asked. "You had to scrap the last hundred years of research due to a viral outbreak in your sector." He paused, smiled, and said, "Don't throw stones in glass houses."

Beta-Five glanced at Director Lammers. He leaned back in his chair, arms folded behind his head, smiling as he watched the other directors bicker back and forth. Then Beta-Five looked at the other aides. Alpha-Fourteen watched the debate with interest, while the others shrank into their chairs and stared at their hands.

The Alpha Director glanced at Director Lammers and stopped mid-argument. He frowned and asked, "You have something, don't you?"

Director Lammers ignored the question for a moment. Then he looked around the room and asked, "Who, me?"

"Stop being coy, Lammers," Sheldon growled.

"Well, I do have a thought. It's a rather trifling matter, but it might be worth exploring."

"Let's hear it then," Director Zane said. "It's not like we have anything better to discuss."

Director Lammers smiled and leaned towards Sheldon. "Tell me, given the premise that Arkus was right here in this lab, would your Project work?"

"Well, I fail to see how that premise is relevant."

"Would. It. Work?"

"Well, yes, of course it would—"

"And you are absolutely, one-hundred percent sure about that?"

"Of course I am, we tested it thoroughly, and—" The Director stopped and glared at Lammers. His jaw clenched, making the veins in his face bulge, and his hands cracked and groaned against the table. "Are you out of your goddamn mind?"

"Indeed," Director Marcus said, "You take this joke too far."

"What are they talking about," Director Zane whispered to his aide. The aide whispered into his ear, and Zane gaped in shock. Then his brow furrowed, and he said, "Well, wait a minute. I think he has a point. If Arkus ever came in here, we would win."

Director Marcus laughed and leaned back in his chair, placing his feet on the table. "Yeah, that sounds wonderful. I just have one question. How the hell do you plan on getting Arkus to come here? Perhaps you'll send him an invitation for afternoon tea, or I know! How about requesting a parley? Oh yes, he would never suspect a trap."

"When setting a trap, you have to use the right bait," Director Lammers said. "And I know the perfect bait for him."

Director Zane smiled and said, "You're referring to the Beta Project, Section ν, correct?"

"Indeed I am. If there's one thing Arkus fears more than us, it's Darkrai. And if we happened to convince him Darkrai was back…"

"He still wouldn't work with us," Sheldon countered. "He would think that we would stab him in the back the first chance we got."

"Which is why we need to convince him otherwise. I imagine a bit of creative memory alteration would do the trick."

"A bit? You're talking about overwriting the memories of every single member we have. That would take years!"

"Actually, we only need to do three-hundred. I propose we put the rest of the Order in an induced coma, until the Project's completion."

"The induced coma from the ν Project," Director Marcus remarked. "Now I see where you're going. We convince Arkus that we only came to him out of desperation, making our request more believable and reducing the likelihood we could theoretically backstab him. Additionally, by reducing our numbers, we can make the memory alterations more thorough."

Sheldon rubbed his thin, blonde hair and said, "If Arkus ever found any of our research data, then we would be ruined."

"Which is why I also propose that we destroy all of our incriminating research," Lammers added. "That would include the Alpha Project in its entirety, some of my own, and a fair amount of Zeta."

"Preposterous!" Director Zane shouted. "You would destroy hundreds of years of research for this gamble?"

"Better to lose some research than to lose our lives. And besides, I'm sure I could remember it all." Director Lammers tapped the right side of his head with a fingernail, creating a metallic tapping sound. "I have sixty terabytes of storage, more than enough for all your data."

"That leaves us with the original problem," Director Sheldon pointed out. "I trust you haven't forgotten what the Epsilon Empire incident taught us, that zoroark can read both minds and computer storage."

"Ah, but can they do that in the presence of Darkrai's energy?"

Director Zane's eyes widened, and he said, "Are you implying that you would put yourself under a coma?"

"Of course. How else could we convince Arkus that the threat has greatly damaged us if we haven't lost a few of our key leaders."

"A few," Marcus growled, "Which means you think another one of us should be put under too."

"Three of us, actually: you, me, and Zane. Director Lammers should oversee his Project. Additionally, we could have one of the sub-directors become a de-facto leader in the crisis, perhaps the cultural preservation chairman?"

"Just stop," Director Sheldon said. "I'm sick of you trickling your plan like this. State your whole proposition, no implications, no clever language, no nonsense. Understood?"

"Very well," Director Lammers said. He placed his hands on the table and leaned forward. "I propose we spend three days developing a transmitter for Darkrai's energy. Each transmitter will have one cell of the ν Sample as an energy source and use our amplification technology to deliver the proper dosage internally. Then, we shall spend one month testing it on human subjects, to ensure they can survive exposure for that length of time. Next, our agents will implant transmitters in roughly one-hundred pokemon in Palsitore and ten in Yvenna. For this, we should avoid the zoroark, for if any agents are caught, the plan is ruined. The next step is to implant these transmitters in ninety-nine percent of the Order, selected at random save for a few necessary individuals, alter the memories of the remaining one percent. Once the transmitters are in place and the memory alteration is complete, we should wait another week before sending an envoy to Arkus and asking – no, begging for his help. Once finished, we should delay another week or so, sending Arkus on a wild goose chase for Darkrai and lowering his guard, waiting for the perfect moment to use the Alpha Project."

"So, that's your proposition?"

"Not quite, there's one last bit." Lammers looked at Beta-Five and said, "I propose that my aide should serve as the envoy."

"Care to explain why?" Sheldon asked.

"Of course. For this project to succeed, it's vital that Arkus trusts us. Out of all the agents that came into contact with Subject µ2.0, Beta-Five was the one it opened up to."

"That's it? What a flimsy reason."

"Do you have any reason not to?"

"Of course. A field agent would be sent as an envoy, not a researcher. If we want the memory replacement to be realistic, then we have to use as much of the original material as possible."

"Which is why I propose that Beta-Five assist in planting the transmitters as a field agent. This way, he'll have memories you can use."

Director Sheldon frowned and adjusted his glasses. "You didn't just think of this now, did you? Your arguments are too well thought-out for this to be a spontaneous idea."

"You are correct. The idea came to me last night, after the breakthrough on the ν Project. I hadn't planned on proposing it, since I know you would never typically accept such a risky idea, but considering the situation, well, we can't afford to be picky, now can we?"

Director Zane stood up. "I've heard enough. I hereby second Director Lammers' proposal and request a vote. All in favor of merging all assets into the combined Alpha-Beta Project, as per Director Lammers' proposed instructions, please rise."

Lammers stood, and Beta-Five hastily followed, along with Zane's aide. Director Marcus glanced at Sheldon before standing as well, and his aide followed him. Alpha-Fourteen looked at her Director, who remained seated, and rose as well.

Director Sheldon glanced at his aide and ran a hand through his hair. "You know this goes against the principles of Sinex," he said. "The whole reason for splitting into six groups was to gain the multiple perspectives needed to find the perfect solution."

"And look where that got us," Lammers countered. "Delta and Epsilon both fell to the pokemon, and it was only through your memory-alteration technology and protocols that we weren't discovered. Not to mention, their research has proven vital for own projects, especially yours." Director Sheldon dug his fingernails into his palms and gritted his teeth. "Additionally, we already share the majority of our human assets, including maintenance and field agents. In reality, we're only merging two percent of the combined Sinex assets. The rest are already one entity."

Everyone in the room stared at Director Sheldon. Sweat dripped down his brow, forming a dark ring on the neck of his lab coat. He wiped the sweat onto his sleeve and placed his hands on the table, slowly pushing himself out of his chair. Then he pushed his chair back and stood.

"Very well," he said. "By unanimous vote, we hereby move to enact Director Lammers' proposal. Starting today, we shall funnel all assets into the combined Alpha-Beta Project and eliminate all other Projects that could threaten the viability of this proposal. The meeting is adjourned. Relay all instructions to your agents and prepare for the plan's implementation."

The elevator doors opened, and everyone in the room walked into the elevator, each taking a side of the hexagonal prism. Then the car lurched upwards. At the top, the Directors and their aides split off towards their respective labs. As Beta-Five walked behind Director Lammers, he suddenly stopped and guided him into an empty break room.

"I'm sorry I didn't speak with you before volunteering you like that. If you wish, we can assign a different agent."

Beta-Five stiffened and said, "No sir. If you think I am best suited for this job, then I will accept."

The Director smiled and said, "Good. I – no, we'll be counting on you. For humanity."

"For humanity," Beta-Five echoed as he followed Director Lammers to the Beta Laboratories.


	4. Chapters 7-8

Chapter Seven: Chihiro de Arkus

Chihiro stayed home from school for a week, staring at the pile of papers at the foot of her bed and poking at the food her parents left her on the nightstand. For the first three days, her father had driven her out of the city, and she practiced using the Aura until he was convinced she could control it.

Arkus had given her thin metal rods for practice. Misshapen metal lumps, the remains of those rods, lie scattered around her bed like dead moths. She took a rod from the cup on her nightstand and held it in her fingers. Then she reached out with the power and crushed it between her palms, forming a flat disc. She tossed the disc aside and rolled over on her bed. Her shoulders settled into the indent in her bed.

Her mother knocked on the door and walked in with a tray of croquettes. "I made your favorite," she said, taking away an uneaten sandwich and leaving the croquettes next to her.

"Not hungry," Chihiro mumbled.

"I heard Serisen's returning to school tomorrow."

Chihiro's ears perked up, and she pulled the blankets up to hide her face. "Hmm," she grunted. Alicia stood in the doorway a moment before walking out and closing the door. Once she was gone, Chihiro put the plate of croquettes on her lap and ate them all. Then she drained the glass of water next to her bed. Setting aside the dirty dishes, she crawled over to the pile of homework and dragged it to the other side of her bed. She sighed as she leafed through the math and history worksheets, and she made a rough estimate of how much work it would take to finish them.

Hours later, she collapsed over the pile of finished homework and fell asleep. Her parents quietly opened the door and checked on her.

"Wow, you were right," Arkus said as he straightened out the papers. "Didn't think mentioning Serisen would do her this much good."

Alicia smiled. "Oh come on, don't tell me you didn't notice."

"I thought they were just friends. Well, I guess all children grow up some day."

Arkus frowned and glanced behind him. Then he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of wine.

"Everything alright? You're thinking about the Family meeting, aren't you?"

"Well, that's part of it." He drained the glass in one swallow and then took a swig from the bottle. "I feel like I'm being watched, and I've been having headaches for the past few nights."

Alicia placed her hands on his back and massaged his neck. "You probably need to take it easy for a few days."

"Yeah, you're right." He turned around and kissed her on the cheek. "I'll take a few days off once the Family calms down. We'll go out for dinner. Sound good?"

Alicia wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. "I would like that," she whispered in his ear.

The alarm jangled on her nightstand and tipped over onto the floor. Chihiro slapped her hand onto the nightstand and waved it around, knocking over the cup of rods. She glanced onto the floor and glared at the alarm clock. Then she rolled out of bed on top of the clock, silencing it with her shoulder. She slipped on the rods as she stood up and rubbed her aching shoulder. As she placed the alarm clock on the nightstand and crawled back onto bed, she remembered why she had the alarm set in the first place.

Serisen was back.

That thought pulled her back out of bed and into the kitchen. She rummaged through the leftovers she hadn't eaten, piled a sandwich and a handful of croquettes onto a plate, and bolted them down as fast as she could chew them. A hasty hair-combing and a quick goodbye later, she sprinted out the door. The streets were sparsely populated, and the school's clock told her she had half an hour before classes.

Once Chihiro arrived at the school, she leaned against the brick wall and watched the sidewalks. She positioned herself in the shadows so she would be out of the sight of anyone walking through the doors. After ten minutes, students started tricking through the main doors. She watched and waited, but she never saw Serisen. A minute before class started, she debated staying longer and taking the detention, but she realized Serisen might arrive late for class and went inside.

As Chihiro sat at her desk, a hush fell over the classroom. She felt the weight of a dozen gazes on her shoulders, and she slumped down her chair. Mr. Renfield went through attendance, and it was only when he skipped Seth's name that she realized the lombre was absent. A smile crept onto her face as she looked at the empty seat in the front.

Then, suddenly, a thought flickered across her mind. What if Serisen was mad at her? A bone-chilling numbness sloshed around her gut and wormed its way to her throat.

"Chihiro!" Mr. Renfield said. "Your homework please."

The sudden shout snapped Chihiro out of her daydream. As she brought up the pile of papers, she dismissed the thought and berated herself for being so paranoid. Serisen would know it was an accident – she repeated this to herself as she sat down.

During lunch, she peered across the cafeteria at Mrs. Tully's table. Serisen was eating with his other classmates. His face wasn't bandaged, and Chihiro could see a thin red scar on his cheek. Though she tried waving to get his attention, he never took his eyes off of his food. Once again, Chihiro wondered if he was mad, but she concluded they would talk on the monkey bars.

Though she ate as fast as she could, Serisen ate faster, and he made it outside before she did. A moment later, Chihiro returned her lunch tray and ran outside. He sat on top of the monkey bars, staring at the empty playground and touching his scar.

"Hey Serisen!" she shouted. Serisen flinched and looked at her. She scrambled up the monkey bars and sat next to him. "So, it doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"

Serisen dropped off the monkey bars and walked away. As Chihiro watched him leave, she felt tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away and turned around, slouching over so her chin rested on her knees.

During the rest of the school day, her chin never rose any higher than her desk. A deep, lonely chill had settled into her gut and gnawed at her spine, and though she wanted to cry, the sensation of everyone staring at her kept her eyes dry. And though she tried to ignore it, Mr. Renfield kept giving her odd glances as he gave his lectures.

Once the bell rang, Mr. Renfield called her name as the other students were leaving.

"Chihiro, please stay a minute after class."

She hadn't even left her desk, and so, just stared at him as he straightened out his books and waited for the other students to leave.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked once they were alone. "If you're not feeling well, then you should just stay home."

"I'm fine," Chihiro mumbled.

Mr. Renfield adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. "It's okay to tell me if something's wrong, Chihiro. That's what I'm here for."

"Mm-hmm."

The ursaring sighed and rubbed the patch of hair under his chin. "Alright then, you're dismissed."

Chihiro thought about getting herself an ice-cream, but the thought of sitting in a booth alone made her walk straight home. When she returned, her father was on the phone.

"So, you think something happened during recess?" he asked. A short pause later, he said, "No, I think I know what happened. Yes, thank you for calling. I'll do what I can. Goodbye."

He put the phone down and turned towards Chihiro. For a minute, they stared at each other in silence. Then Chihiro turned away and walked into her room. She dumped her books onto her bed and leafed through the pages of the nearest one. After a while, she heard him pick up the phone and make a call.

"Hello Heste, how are you? Yes, I'm fine; I was calling to see how Serisen was doing." A long pause later, he said, "I see. It wasn't easy for Chihiro either. I think all we can do is give them time. No, forcing them won't do any good. I'll try my best. Take care Heste."

As she heard the phone clink, Chihiro bitterly thought how lucky her father was. He got changed while she was left as a freak. She mulled over the history for a while, then realized that she could also change. She sprang out of bed and raced into the living room.

"What is it, Chihiro?" Arkus asked, his eyebrows raised at her sudden energy.

"Could I become a zoroark? You know, the way you did?"

His face fell, and he sat onto the sofa. Patting the cushion next to him, he told her to sit down.

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask that until you were older," he said.

"Well, can I?"

Arkus bit his lip and said, "Not yet."

"But why?"

"There's still something we haven't told you yet. And with any luck, it's something you'll never have to worry about.

"You're not even going to give me the reason?"

Arkus clenched his jaw. "How's this for a reason? You're not old enough to make such a huge decision. Once you change, there's no going back. You could end up regretting it for the rest of your life."

Silence fell between them. The grandfather clock on the far well clunked with each second, and it seemed to grow louder every minute. Once Arkus shifted in his seat, Chihiro asked, "Do you regret it?"

"I didn't have a choice."

Arkus left the couch and went to his room. After a moment, Chihiro went to her own room and fell onto her bed. She stared at the bony white protrusions from her hands and asked herself why she couldn't be like Serisen.

Chapter Eight: RAB5

Beta-Five could taste a new zeitgeist in the air of the Sinex laboratories. Its agents were both anxious and eager, propelled by both the fear of failure and the anticipation of success. Beta-Five puzzled over the intriguing tumult of emotion as he observed the bedridden subjects of the Alpha-Beta prototype testing. Though the implants embedded into their spinal cords leaked a minuscule amount of radiation, the patients were incurably comatose yet physically sound.

The implants were designed in two days. With every research agent working together, the design issues they encountered were quickly surmounted. One scientist from Zeta recognized that all the pokemon falling ill at the same time would cause suspicion, and a Gamma researcher countered with a randomly-generated countdown sequence. After further debate, each device was produced with two timers: one to set it off after a random interval of time and one to destroy the ν cells after a month.

On the fifth day of research, another meeting was called. With the Directors busy overseeing the project's preparations, their aides were sent instead. Armed with Director Lammers' logistics reports, Beta-Five took the elevator down to the meeting room with the other aides. They took seats at their chairs and placed their tablets on the tables.

"Thank you all for coming," Alpha Fourteen said. "I'll begin the meeting with Alpha's status report. So far, we've made fifty percent of the chips – well ahead of schedule, I might add. However' we're experiencing difficulty developing the implant mechanism. Early testing revealed severe damage to the spinal cord upon injection of the implant."

"I can allocate a few of our agents to solve the problem," Beta-Five added. "However, I'll need a few agents to pick up slack on data collection. We're falling behind on monitoring EEG patterns. Zeta-Twelve, do you have any to spare?"

"We do. Data replacement for all groups is nearly complete, and all of our incriminating samples have been destroyed. I could offer a few of our scientists to Alpha or Gamma as well."

"We don't need them," Gamma-Eight said. "However, we do need a few computers. Programming the memories is taking too long with our current processing power."

Alpha-Fourteen tapped her tablet and swiped through inventory tables. "We have several spare processors, and you're welcome to them."

"Make sure they're clean when we get them," Gamma-Eight said with a frown. "The last processors you sent us still had subroutines running in them, and it cost us several hours."

"Understood. I'll check them myself before they're sent."

The aides confirmed the transactions before carrying them out on their tablets. With a few swipes of their fingers, agents were shifted around and assets were marked for transfer. Once they were finished, they mailed each other a log of the transactions and shook hands.

As they left the elevator, Alpha-Fourteen tapped Beta-Five on the shoulder. They remained by the elevator as the other aides returned to their labs.

"Do you mind if we talk for a moment?"

"Not at all, but we should make it quick."

"Of course." Beta-Five saw the faintest blush redden her cheeks as she swiped her tablet on the elevator doors. She pulled him inside and sent the elevator down.

"Why didn't we just stay in the meeting room if you wanted to talk here?"

"I didn't wish to cause any… uncertainties in the other aides."

Beta-Five rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I see. So, what did you want to talk about?"

Alpha-Fourteen leaned against her seat and glanced towards the elevator doors. "Well, I've been thinking for a while now. Considering that the Alpha Director has already been selected for staying awake, it would be unfitting for his closest aide to be similarly untouched. So, I'll be going under as well."

"Oh. Um, so, is that all?"

Alpha-Fourteen looked down and rubbed at the hem of her lab coat. "Well, no. I've also been thinking about what comes after I wake up. We'll either all be dead, or we'll have won. And once we win, we'll form a new society, one where we have the luxury of… other commitments."

"I don't follow your logic."

"Well, it's not exactly something easy to put it into words."

Beta-Five's tablet vibrated. He took it out and glanced at the screen, but then he looked up and saw Alpha-Fourteen's pensive face. He put it away and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You were saying?"

"Ah, yes. I, um, I've been giving thought to what path I'll take upon the completion of the Alpha-Beta project, and, well, I've come to realize that I've developed deep feelings with you over the course of our lives."

"I suppose I could say the same. We've been friends since our school days, after all."

"That's not quite what I mean." Alpha-Fourteen rubbed her earlobe and bit her lip. "Through whatever mechanism of hormones and other biological factors – something I'm sure you would understand better than I – I have developed deeper feelings for you, ones that, in the old society, would have been consummated with marriage."

Beta-Five's face whitened, and he stepped back into the wall. "Wh – what are you saying?"

"I'm not asking for an answer now. I just want you to give it some thought."

"B-b-but the preparations, and the memory wipe, and, and why now?"

"I know I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry, but there might not be another chance. If you want me to, I can erase this memory for you, so it's like I never asked."

Beta-Five took a deep breath and placed a hand over his eyes. "I – I need time to think about this. Then maybe."

Alpha-Fourteen gave him a wan smile and said, "Alright then. Let's return to our work."

During the elevator ride up, Alpha-Fourteen tapped him on the shoulder. She looked down at the floor and said, "Actually, I was also wondering if I could – no, never mind, forget I asked. Not yet."

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Maybe I've been working too hard," she said. She looked up at the ceiling and took the tablet out of her pocket. "I should schedule in another hour of sleep."

When the elevator door opened, Alpha-Fourteen darted off towards the Alpha laboratories. Beta-Five watched her leave before wandering back to his own sector. He first thought of returning to his room, but his footsteps carried him into Section µ of the Beta laboratories. When he picked up the clipboard, he started and stared at the documents in his hand. The results were over a week old, forgotten amidst the chaos of Alpha-Beta testing. A thin layer of dust had gathered on the bottles of acetone, and one of the lights in the room had gone out.

As he turned to leave, he noticed µ2.0 staring at him. Those serene purple eyes had a faint sense of loneliness that compelled Beta-Five to stay. He walked inside 2.0's chamber and sat on the bed next to it.

"There hasn't been anyone around for a while. Are you mad at me for asking for books?"

"Not at all," Beta-Five answered. "There's been an emergency, and all the experiments have been cancelled."

"Then what's going to happen to me?"

"Well—" Beta-Five's face froze when he remembered the fate decided for the µ Project. He scrambled to think of how to tell the Subject and found he couldn't. No matter how much he told himself it had to be done and that no scientist should ever lie, he couldn't stop himself from telling µ2.0 that it would be placed in cryo-freeze.

"And when you wake up, the experiments will begin again."

"I see. It's just like the books." µ2.0 glanced toward the pile of books and said, "I finished reading most of them. Can I have some more when I wake up?"

"Of course. Maybe you can even pick them out yourself."

The Subject smiled and said, "Thank you, I would like that. Oh, and could you read me a story?"

"I'm sorry. I have to get back to work."

"Oh, okay then." When Beta-Five placed his hand on the door knob, µ2.0 ran forward and grabbed his lab coat.

"Actually, I have one quick question. What is love?"

Beta-Five froze up. He stiffly turned to face the subject and weakly asked, "Wh-why do you want to know?"

"I first heard the term in Lord of the Rings, and since then, I've seen it in numerous other texts. It seems so important, yet I have no idea what it is."

"We-we-well, um, hold on." Beta-Five went into the other room for a drink and tipped the nearest container he could find into his mouth, only to spit out the acetone. His eyes darted around the room, and he spotted an old cup of coffee. He swished out the acetone with half of it and drank the rest before returning to the chamber.

"Right, love," Beta-Five said. "Love is… love is an affinity between two organisms caused by a hormonal reaction."

"Oh, is that all?" µ2.0 frowned and pondered it further, then he said, "Well wait, Arwen and Aragorn aren't the same species so how could it work like that?"

"They're similar enough," Beta-Five said as he hastily smoothed out his lab coat and walked towards the door. "Now I really must be going."

"Okay. Take care, Beta-Five. Will you be there when they put me in cryo freeze?"

"Yes, yes I will."

Beta-Five strode out of the chamber and turned into the nearest empty room. He leaned against a wall and wiped the sweat off his brow.

"I have to – I have to calm down," he told himself. "Get some water. Not acetone, water." He weakly chuckled, left the room and returned to his quarters, avoiding the signs of other people. Hands shaking, he tried to tell the kitchen unit to prepare a glass of water, but instead, he got a bottle of root beer. He licked his lips and drank the whole bottle down in one long, noisy chug. Then he checked his tablet. He tried to sort through the updates mailed to him, but he couldn't focus on the screen. With a groan, he threw back the sheets on his bed, turned out the lights, and fell into a troubled slumber.


	5. Chapters 9-10

Chapter Nine: Chihiro de Arkus

Chihiro's stomach growled, but she didn't feel like eating the mashed berries and beef hash on the lunch tray in front of her. She could feel the other students staring at her and hear every hushed whisper. Though weeks had passed since that day, she remained the talk of the school.

The recess bell rang. Chihiro dumped the untouched food into the garbage and walked to the monkey bars. Serisen sat in a tree across the playground. He looked at her, and then quickly looked away.

When Chihiro arrived home, neither of her parents was there. She picked up the note on the counter and dimly noted the presence of croquettes in the fridge. Putting one between her fingers, she peeled back the doughy breading and probed the meat underneath. Then she pinched it shut and returned it to the fridge.

Her room felt like a corpse. It reeked of her loneliness, and the pictures of Serisen strewn across the floor brought tears to her eyes. After a minute of staring at them, she returned to the kitchen. She took a knife out of the block and went into the bathroom. The white walls and cramped space of the toilet room felt cold and oppressing, as though a coating of snow sat on her shoulders.

Chihiro pressed the blade of the knife against her arm and held it there, the edge poised to slice into her skin. The metal's icy temperature made her shiver. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly, savoring each breath of air that passed through her lips. The air had a taste of adrenaline, charged by the thought of slicing her skin.

As she took another breath in, her nose tingled. She felt the sneeze coming and tried to move the blade away, but the sneeze forced her hands forward. The knife sliced into her arm, and blood welled up from the shallow cut. It trickled down her arm, and a single drop of blood fell into the toilet. The red stain plummeted to the bottom, and then it formed a nebulous red cloud that slowly dispersed until only the faintest blush of color remained.

Chihiro gritted her teeth and inspected the cut. The harsh metallic smell flooded her nose. Out of a flash of curiosity, Chihiro leaned forward and licked the cut, coating her tongue with her blood. The smell and taste blended together into a surge of rust and dismay that trickled through her mind. Her yearning for a new body surged yet again to her mind, but this time, with blood on her lips, she remembered how her father changed.

"If I just had some of his blood," she mused to herself. She shook the thought from her head. He wouldn't give her his blood, nor would he happen to have it lying around.

 _Or would he?_ The thought slithered into her mind like a snake and struck. She rationalized the existence of some hidden stash of his blood, waiting for the day she was old enough, then she pondered where he would keep it. Once she had wiped the blood onto some toilet paper and flushed it away, she walked up to her parents' room.

Chihiro closed her eyes. A dark power clung to the door and walls of the room, like dewdrops. Even beyond the door, she could sense the power coating every surface, and she felt the strands leading away from the apartment. Like a spider web, it would twitch and vibrate if anyone touched it.

She focused the Aura into her arms and pushed herself off the ground. Then she opened a rift between the hallway and her room. Although she tried to make it bigger, she could barely squirm through the tiny, flickering hole. Once inside, she floated through the room and inspected every surface. Her thoughts probed each container, searching for anything unusual. The darkness clinging to every surface clouded her sight, but eventually, she found the massive pool of darkness beneath the bed.

The bedspread, hanging over all sides of the bed, made it impossible for her to float under the bed, so she focused and made another rift. Her bones burned as she struggled to hold it open long enough to wriggle through.

Her shoulder grazed the underside of the bed. She flinched away and swore to herself before inspecting the floor beneath her. The darkness coating every surface allowed her to see the lock built into the floor. She thought about how to open it without disturbing the darkness and realized she wouldn't be able to. With a flick of her hand, she flung the bolt back. The carpet sprang out and up, knocking her on the chin.

Inside the hidden compartment was a sniper rifle. It was coated in nicks and dings, and the barrel was lacerated with scratch marks. A foul stench rose from the gun, one that made Chihiro's skin crawl.

Looking past the gun, she saw a glass phial tucked into a dishcloth. She held it up, uncorked it, and smelled the contents. The odor, still fresh on her lips, was unmistakable. With a smile, she flew out from the bed, walked into her own room, and closed the door.

Beneath City Hall, Arkus sat at the head of the Family table, listening to the zoroark debate yet again the fate of his daughter. The long line of bodies down each side of the thick stone table blurred into a single dark blob that roiled and bubbled with each new outburst.

"We cannot tolerate the presence of a lucario any longer! She needs to be dealt with before she becomes too powerful!"

"You assume that she's going to threaten us. She has no reason to."

A fist thumped onto the table, and a voice said, "That's what he wants us to think!"

"Oh come now, if he wanted to kill us, he would've done it himself."

"I concur," Arkus declared. "And I'm tempted enough to do that without all the talk of killing my daughter."

"You know there's another option," another zoroark pointed out. "Just have her drink your blood already. You should've done it when she was born, if you ask me."

"I won't allow that until I'm sure Darkrai is no more. We have no other means to defend ourselves if it returns."

"Yes, Darkrai. You are incredibly fond of bringing up that foul memory. It's been twelve years, and not so much as the faintest glimmer of its energy remains. Stop using it as an excuse to avoid what must be done."

Arkus felt a twitch from his strands of power. Before he could discern where the vibration came from, it was gone. He mulled it over and decided it was nothing.

"Father! Are you even paying attention?"

"Sorry, I felt something. Could you repeat what you just said?"

"Yes, of course," the zoroark said with a curt nod. "As I said, the most logical course of action is to transform her. That way, she won't have to die and we won't be at risk. As for Darkrai, I believe myself not alone in thinking you destroyed it completely. Unless you have any proof it survived, you shouldn't continue to hide behind that excuse."

Arkus placed his hands on the table and started to rise. However, as he left his seat, a far stronger surge of energy sprang through the tangle of threads about him. As each strand jerked and quivered, he saw the safe beneath his bed spring open.

"Is something the matter?" the zoroark to his left asked. "Are you listening to me?"

Arkus turned around and waved his hand. A smooth black circle, through which he could see the living room, formed in front of him. The zoroark fell into an uproar as he sprinted through the rift and closed it behind him.

He checked his room first. The covers were thrown over his bed, and the safe was opened. He rummaged through the safe and found the bottle missing. Then he heard Chihiro in her bedroom, screaming in pain. He threw the door opened and stopped. Chihiro was on the floor, moaning and crying out as she clutched at her chest. Patches of her hair turned black and reverted to their original color in roiling waves. The glass phial was on the floor next to her, empty.

For a moment, Arkus stared. His limbs refused to move, and sweat trickled down his neck. Then he jerked forward, scooped, Chihiro into his arms, and carried her into the living room. He sat her on the couch and placed her head into his lap. Her moaning subsided, and Arkus felt her muscles loosen up. The few remaining patches of black hair lightened to their original hue.

Arkus stroked her hair as she slept. After an hour, her eyes snapped open, and she sprang up. She hissed in pain and rubbed her head.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Ugh, awful. I had this weird dream where I—"

Chihiro licked her lips, and her eyes widened as she tasted the blood. Then she looked up and saw her unchanged hands.

"It didn't work," she said.

"It'll be okay. Just lie down."

Chihiro put her head on her father's lap and stared at the ceiling. At first, she felt numb, but then the tears started to flow. She rolled over and sobbed into her father's lap, staining his suit with her tears. He stroked the back of her head and massaged her ears.

Hours later, when the last rays of sunset streamed through the blinds, Chihiro sat up and wiped at her bleary, itchy eyes. She glanced at her father before looking away.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah." Chihiro slid down the couch and stared down at the floor. Her shoulders tensed up and she clenched her jaw as she waited for a scolding.

Arkus stood over and walked to the window. He pulled up the blinds, letting all the remaining sunlight into the room. Then he turned around, took a deep breath, and said, "Chihiro, I have to apologize."

She turned towards him and wiped at her eyes. "What?"

"I thought you would be able to sort this all out on your own, and I thought that trying to get involved would only make it worse. I should have spoken with you and made sure you knew everything would be okay."

"But it's not okay!" She spread out her arms and looked at them. Tears fell down her face. "I'm not normal," she whispered.

Arkus stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. "Nobody's normal. And that's okay. It'll be okay."

Chihiro shoved his arms away and stomped a few steps back. "No, it's not okay! Everyone at school looks at me weird, and they keep talking about me, and Serisen, and, and Serisen…" She collapsed onto the couch and sobbed into her arm.

Arkus sat down next to her and placed his arm over her shoulders. "Chihiro, I know how much it hurts. When I woke up, six hundred years had passed. Everyone I knew was dead. Kendra was executed as an anarchist and traitor, Ty'mir died of old age, and everyone else was gone. The village I grew up in was gone. So were all the buildings I knew here. I thought I had no one. But then I found others."

He slid closer and placed his head against hers. "I want you to remember something, okay? No matter how bad it gets, it will always get better. The sun always rises. You're never alone. Just have a little patience, and it will get better. Okay?"

He gave her a long, warm hug. Then he stood up and said, "Let's get some dinner, alright Chihiro?"

She wiped away the last of her tears and said, "Yeah, I'm hungry."

Chapter 10: RAB5

Beta-Five walked up to Director Lammers' office and knocked on the door. When he didn't get a response, he placed his ear against the door. A sudden shout from Director Lammers made him leap back in surprise.

"What do you mean the Alpha Project needs Arkus' blood to work?"

Beta-Five glanced around the room before listening in again. The Alpha Director mumbled his response, and Director Lammers flew into a tirade.

"Did it not occur to you that we would've needed to know this fact a little sooner? Fuck! You wait until now? Now? How the fuck are we supposed to get his blood? You think we should ask nicely? Maybe try to stick a needle in him while he's sleeping? What the hell is wrong with you?"

The Beta Director stopped mid-tirade and cleared his throat. "Beta-Five, are you coming in or not?"

"Oh, sorry sir," Beta-Five stammered. His hand fumbled with the doorknob, and he threw the door open. The knob hit the wall with a metallic clang and left a small dent.

"The planters are done sir, as are the chips. Everything is ready."

"Good. Also, have the production team work on modifying the ν experiment into some sort of weaponized… thingy. We'll tell Arkus we need his blood for our prototype anti-Darkrai defense system, or something like that."

"There's leftover components from the Alpha Project we could use," Director Sheldon blurted. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

Director Lammers glared at him. "You better be right."

The Alpha Director walked towards the door. Beta-Five backed against a wall as he passed by, and once he was gone, Beta-Five closed the door. The Beta-Director gestured at the open chair. Beta-Five cautiously sat down and felt himself sink into the chair's cushion.

"Are you ready?" Director Lammers asked.

"Yes. I watched all the training videos."

"Good."

The Director sighed and placed his hands in his hair. His hands twitched, and his knuckles made popping sounds as he squeezed his skull. Then he lowered his head until it touched his desk.

"You will be a Director one day. And I am deeply, truly sorry for you."

"Uh, sir?"

The Director's right hand fell forward and pointed at Beta-Five. "There's one thing I want you to remember when you're Director, one thing I want you to promise me you'll do."

"What is it?"

"Stay as far away as possible from the other Directors. Heck, build yourself a new lab, somewhere far, far away." He leaned back and turned his chair around. "They're all insane. Heck, I sometimes wonder if I'm just as crazy as they are. Maybe crazier."

Beta-Five stared down at his hands and rubbed them together. "I, uh, should probably get ready." He glanced at the clock on his tablet. There were still ten hours before nightfall.

"Get going then, and make sure everyone knows the change in plans."

Director Lammers started cursing and muttering about the changes that'll have to be made to the memory implants as Beta-Five left the room. In a daze, he walked back to his room and absently swiped the prompts for a root-beer into his kitchen unit. The bubbly sweet liquid was already halfway down his throat by the time he realized he was holding the bottle. He paced back and forth across his room, taking quick, shallow sips of soda and glancing at his clock every twenty seconds. Though a handful of email notifications flashed on his tablet, he didn't notice them.

After an hour, he walked out of his room and slammed the door behind him. He walked down to the Beta Labs, into the cold, empty µ Section. The layer of dust over everything gave the testing room a dim, faded appearance, and a biscuit that sat on the table started growing a grayish pink mold.

Subject µ 2.0 looked up from the book it was reading, smiled, and slid over on the bed. Beta-Five walked in and sat next to it.

"You're back! Is it time for the cryo-freeze yet?"

"No, not yet."

Beta-Five took a sip from the bottle, and µ2.0 watched the liquid slosh around.

"Ooh, what's that? Root beer?"

Beta-Five glanced at the label on the bottle, and then he held it towards the Subject. "Yeah, want some?"

The protocols prohibiting outside substances flashed through his head, but before he could think of taking the soda away, µ2.0 had already taken a sip.

"It's good!" it said, giving the bottle back to him. "Can I have some more?"

Beta-Five forced a smile onto his face. "Maybe after the cryo-freeze, okay? I have to go now."

"Okay! Are you going to come back again?"

"Maybe, we'll see."

Beta-Five drank the rest of the soda as he left the room and tossed the bottle into a trash can. As he walked back towards the other Beta Laboratories, Alpha-Fourteen ran up to him.

"Finally found you! Why haven't you answered me?"

"Wait, what?

Alpha-Fourteen grabbed him by the shoulders and said, "The emails I sent you. You got them, right?"

Beta-Five took out his tablet and saw the pile of notifications. "Oh, missed it."

"How—" She shook her head and said, "Never mind that, I need you to look over the plans for Alpha-Beta Amendment Nineteen before we can begin."

"Amendment nineteen?" he asked as he opened up the email. A blueprint popped onto the screen, for a convoluted metal structure with a tangle of cables, bulky steel plates, and a test-tube holder jutting out from it.

"Oh, that's right. Yes, it looks fine."

"You hardly looked at it!" she said, pressing the tablet into his face.

Beta-Five shoved it away, and it slipped out of her grasp. The screen cracked when it hit the floor. Alpha-Fourteen stared at it for a moment, and then she picked up the stray pieces of glass.

"Are you feeling alright?" she asked. "Is it what I said the other day? I could delete those memories for you."

Beta-Five felt his cheeks burn. "No, no it's not that. It's um, well, I'm worried."

"About the mission?"

He paused a moment before saying, "Yeah, the mission. I, uh, never did it before, and I can't afford to make mistakes."

Alpha-Fourteen smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be fine. All you have to do is follow the squad captain's orders, and he'll make sure you do everything right."

"Yeah, thanks. I should go, uh, watch the videos again."

"Just relax! You'll do fine!"

Beta-Five took his broken tablet from her and walked down the hall. By the time he returned to his room, a new tablet was already waiting for him, with an email notification flashing on it. He replied to the message and sat down at his computer.

Eight hours later, having re-watched the training videos twice, he turned off his computer and got dressed in the field agent gear. He tossed the pizza pocket wrappers and soda bottles into the garbage can and checked his gear. Then he walked to the field agent quarters.

The quarters were one expansive room. Hammocks were strung against one wall, and their equipment hung from another. Half of the room was a field of cubicles, each with agents managing field data. The other half had spacious circular tables for managing equipment and team meetings. One corner had small metallic pads, over each of which a large laser hung, and boxes of the new equipment.

Beta-Five was escorted to the largest circular table, a flat wood circle that seated fifty people. Most seats were taken by black-clad field agents. The squad captain, a burly woman with a gray stripe across her uniform, ordered Beta-Five to sit next to her.

The captain stood and said, "now that we're all here, let's begin the briefing."

She passed a pile of manila folders to her left. Each field agent took one and passed the pile down until one last folder reached Beta-Five. His name was written on the front. He opened it up. Inside was a description of the mission, an address and a photograph of a young teddiursa.

"Each of you has one target, which is described in the folder. First chloroform, then the chip, understood?"

The field agents clasped their hands against their chests and said, "Yes sir!"

"Good. Grab your gear and move to the recon base for the memory wipe."

The agents stood and walked to the teleporters in the corner of the room. Beta-Five followed after them, but the squad captain grabbed his shoulder.

"Before you get the memory wipe, be sure to thoroughly explore the base, understood?"

Beta-Five hastily imitated the salute and said, "Yes sir."

"I'll be watching your progress. Just follow the instructions and you'll be fine. Now, get your gear."

"Yes sir." Beta-Five walked over to the boxes. Almost all of them were already empty, but one was set aside for him. First, he took out the bottle of chloroform. A clean brown cloth was tucked beneath the cap. Then he strapped the injector gun to his waist. The bulky metal contraption had clasps on one end to latch onto the target, and a built-in computer system to aim the needle at the spinal cord. The last item, tucked beneath a block of Styrofoam, was the cloaking unit. He stuck it onto his chest and felt the metal hooks latch into his suit.

The squad captain gestured at the teleport pods. Beta-Five stepped on one and the captain took another. A few seconds later, the world vanished into a flash of red light, and he reappeared at a dismal, run-down building. Most of the other agents had already left, and a few others were hooked into computers with electrodes covering their heads.

"You have five minutes. Get going."

"Yes sir."

Beta-Five walked through the halls. Most of the lights were broken, and the few that remained flickered. Cobwebs hung in the corners, and cracks riddled the ceiling.

"Enjoying the tour?" The squad captain walked up next to him and pointed to the hall on the left. "You should go that way – it was the mess hall. Come back once you have a look-around."

The squad captain turned around and walked away. Beta-Five glanced down the right before walking left. When he reached the mess hall doors, he shoved against the rusty joints and threw the doors open.

What he saw brought him to his knees.

Thousands of skeletons rested in the dusty chairs, their jaws contorted into their dying screams. Some had left their chairs and crawled towards the doors, and others held each other in their arms. A few had blown their own brains out with guns that were still held within their bony clutches.

He stumbled away from the scene and knocked over a skeleton next to the door. The tiny, frail skull bounced along the floor, away from its juvenile frame. Beta-Five sprinted down the hall back to the main room.

"Enjoyed the view?"

"Wh-what the hell happened?"

The squad captain adjusted the injector at her side. "That was from the old society's last day. They ran to their underground bunkers, but they weren't deep enough."

"But – but why?"

"They're a reminder of why we do what we do. No machine can ever make you forget that." She pointed to a chair next to the computers. "Now, get in."

Beta-Five stumbled into the chair. Before he realized what was happening, he was already out.

When he regained consciousness, he was standing on top of a building, overlooking the city streets of Palsitore. In his hand was a manila folder.

The agent struggled to recall why he was there, but then he saw the manila folder in his hand. The words on the front, though he could read them, seemed incomprehensible, like a secret code.

He opened the file and read the instructions. His mind mechanically moved to obey the disorders. Without thinking, his hand reached up to the cloaking device on his chest and clicked the button in the center. His hands disappeared in a violet shimmer.

The memories of the city layout felt odd, as though he was reading a map grafted onto his eyes. Like a shadow, he slunk through alleys until he reached his destination. He unlocked a window on the ground and silently leapt inside.

"Make sure you get to bed honey," he heard from the living room. "You need to get more sleep."

"I'm almost done grading these papers," a masculine voice answered. "It should take another ten minutes."

"Alright, but not any longer." A set of footsteps went towards the stairs. He followed behind the female ursaring as she went up to the child's room. She opened the door and poked her head inside.

"Time for bed Joey."

The little teddiursa curled into a ball in his bed. "Can you check under the bed first?"

"Of course sweetie." She grabbed a flashlight hanging on his wall and walked over to his bed. He followed in her shadow as she shone the light beneath the bed.

"See, nothing there. Will you be alright when I turn the lights on?"

"Um, can you leave the flashlight here?"

"Sure, just make sure you turn the light off before you fall asleep." She kissed the child on the forehead, ruffled his ears, and said goodnight. The door creaked shut, and the room became shrouded in darkness.

He walked up to the bed. The child stared up at the ceiling and counted backwards from one hundred, saying "monsters go away" at each multiple of ten. When the count hit zero, he turned onto his side and stared through the agent at the door.

The agent opened the chloroform bottle. The clinking sound of the cap startled the teddiursa. The child sprang out of bed, grabbed the flashlight, and shone it under the bed. Then he got out of bed, wedged a shirt under the door, and flipped the light switch three times. Another countdown to a hundred later, the child once again closed his eyes.

The agent waited another minute before dabbing chloroform onto his cloth. He walked towards the bed and loomed over the child, his hand poised to smother its consciousness. However, he stopped inches from the child's face. Sweat rolled down his forehead and past his eyes, making him feel as though he were crying. His arms shook, and he staggered back. He set the chloroform-soaked rag onto a table.

His mind raced. Was it the chloroform? No, not enough fumes. What then? Why do I hesitate? I have to carry out the mission. I have to – have to…"

An image flashed into his brain, the image of thousands of corpses sitting in chairs. They drank from dusty cups, the clumps of congealed liquid tumbling down their spine.

"Help us," they chanted. "Help us, help us, help us."

"I will," the agent whispered. He darted over to the child and shoved the cloth over its face. The child flailed its arms and gave a muffled shout before it slumped into the pillow. The agent flipped the child over and clamped the injector onto the back of its neck. The computer whirred to life, sliding the needle back and forth before plunging it into the base of its skull. A green light on the side flashed once the needle was out, and the clamps slid off the child's neck.

He snuck out through the child's window, signaled headquarters, and was beamed back to the recon base. Though Beta-Five regained his old memories, the child's bedroom and the mess hall haunted his dreams that night.


	6. Chapters 11-12

Chapter 11: Chihiro de Arkus

That morning, two weeks after she and her father ate burgers at a tavern, Chihiro stuffed her mouth with oatmeal, slung her backpack out of her shoulder, and sprinted out the door.

"Don't be late!" Arkus shouted behind her.

She sat in her desk a minute before class began. Though whispers still floated about her ears, Chihiro forced herself to ignore them. She kept her eyes fixed on the pages of her math book as Mr. Renfield droned on about algebraic expressions.

Lunch that day was her favorite, relative to everything else on the menu. Though the pizza crust was soggy and limp, and the sauce, tasteless and runny, the greasy coating of cheese on top made each bite slide down her throat with a buttery coating on her tongue.

When she went out for recess, Serisen was on the monkey bars. His legs dangled over the bars as he stared at the door. Chihiro paused and stared back, and then she walked towards the monkey bars. He slid over as she climbed up, and they sat together on the monkey bars, as much space between them as possible.

For five minutes, they stared at the playground, without a word spoken between them. They watched pokemon jumping from the swings, climbing up slides, and chasing each other around the trampled grass.

Serisen rubbed the back of his neck, exposing the scar on the side of his face. Chihiro looked away and rubbed her hands together.

Serisen cleared his throat and said, "So, you want to, like, get an ice cream?"

Chihiro quietly answered, "Sure, I guess."

Through the rest of her classes, she couldn't focus. Her thoughts flitted back and forth from telling herself not to get excited, wondering if they're getting back together, and an icy feeling of guilt mingled with images of Serisen's faint scar.

"Chihiro!" Mr. Renfield said. "Are you listening?"

Chihiro's head sprang up. "Sorry, could you repeat that?"

"The problem on the board. What's the answer?"

After class, Mr. Renfield has Chihiro stay behind. He gestured to the desk in front of his own and had her sit.

"If you need to take a day off, just ask," he said. "I know the past few weeks have been rough for you, and I admire your resolve to go to classes, but you shouldn't push yourself. It's okay to take time off if you need it. There's nothing wrong with that."

"I'm fine, thank you." Chihiro stood up to leave, but Mr. Renfield got out of his desk and walked in front of her.

"I know I'm the last person that should be trying to tell you to take time off." He smiled and said, "Heck, my wife keeps badgering me to take time off too. And I understand. You don't want to fall behind, you don't want to feel like you need to do something. But you're not just hurting yourself when you work too hard, you hurt the people that care about you too."

Chihiro forced a smile onto her face. "I understand, but really, I'm fine. I was just daydreaming is all. So, can I go now?"

Mr. Renfield adjusted his glasses. "Well, as long as you understand what's best for you." He stepped aside and watched as Chihiro left the room. Then, with a sigh, he returned to the piles of paperwork on his desk.

Serisen was waiting outside for her. When she walked out the front doors, he walked next to her and asked, "Renfield kept you late again?"

"Yeah, it was nothing."

They walked to the ice cream parlor in silence. Once there, they ordered separate shakes and took the last empty booth. Not a word was spoken as they drained their glasses. Chihiro fiddled with her straw and wondered how to break the silence between them. Then she looked up and saw the scar.

"Does that hurt?" she asked. When she realized what she said, she looked away and hid her face behind her cup.

"Oh, this?" Serisen asked, pointing to the scar. "It's nothing."

"That's good to hear."

Chihiro felt her eyes water up. Though she tried to stop herself from crying, the tears squeezed out from between her eyelids. She sank even lower in her seat as she suppressed the sobs in the back of her throat.

Serisen, however, saw her tears. He paused a moment, hand tentatively reaching towards her, then he got up and sat next to her. Chihiro shied away, but Serisen gently reached around her and touched her shoulder. Chihiro stopped and stared at the table. Then she crept closer to him and placed her cheek against his shoulder.

After a moment, Chihiro got up and wiped her tears onto her sleeve. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cry. I just, I don't know."

"It was hard, wasn't it?" Serisen asked. He grabbed his shake and sipped the last runny bit at the bottom.

"Yeah."

Serisen scratched the back of his neck. "So, can you do anything cool with your Aura?"

"Anything cool?"

"Yeah, like a trick or something."

Chihiro's eyes wandered across the table until she saw the straw sitting in her cup. She took it, held it in front of her eyes, and called forth her Aura. It seeped into the straw, warping the plastic and tearing it into strands. Then she wove the strands into a miniature humanoid figure, adding strands of long, thin, dark hair and tiny claws to complete the image of a zoroark. She held the figurine up in her hand, and then she placed it on the table and made it walk forward.

"Wow," Serisen said. "Can you make it do more stuff?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, dance?"

Chihiro waved her hand, and the figurine waved its limbs in a clumsy jig. After a few steps, it teetered towards the edge of a table and tumbled off.

"Whoops, there he goes! Can you do it again?"

Serisen sneezed and a spatter of blood flew out his nose onto his sleeve. He grabbed a napkin, spat into it, and rubbed the stain out.

"Are you okay?"

"What, this? Just a little nosebleed, I think." A drop of blood trickled out of his nose, and he dabbed it away with the napkin. "See? I'm fine."

Chihiro looked down at the floor. "Maybe you should go home."

"What are you talking about? It's just a nosebleed."

"That's what Aura does, remember?"

"Oh." Serisen looked away and rubbed his nose. Then he leaned towards Chihiro and wrapped his arms around her.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"But–"

"You looked so sad sitting on the monkey bars by yourself," Serisen said. "I wanted to go by you, but, but I couldn't do it." Serisen brought his hand up and wiped a tear from his eye. "I'm sorry. I couldn't do it, even though you looked so lonely."

Serisen reached towards the floor and picked up the plastic figurine. "Here," he said, handing it to her.

Chihiro pressed it into his hands and said, "You keep it. I should get going."

"Okay. Tomorrow then?"

Chihiro looked back at him and smiled. "Sure, why not."

Serisen ran his fingers over the figurine as he watched Chihiro leave. He stood and reached towards the booth door, but a sudden dizzy spell made him sit down again. He coughed, and a dollop of blood stained his shirt sleeve.

"Get it together," he told himself as he reached for the napkins. Once his headache was gone, he flushed the bloody napkins down a toilet and kept his bloody sleeve in his pocket as he walked home.

Chapter 12: RAB5

When Beta-Five woke that fateful morning, he reached for his lab coat and snapped out of his half-asleep stupor when he felt the rubbery black suit of a field agent. Then his heart sank into his gut when he remembered the date.

He wriggled into the suit, zipped it up, and walked down into the Beta Laboratories. He turned into the Beta cryogenic storage room. Row upon row of cryogenic chambers were emptied and set aside. Research agents scrambled to vaporize the last of the samples.

In a panic, Beta-Five looked through the remaining chambers and saw that µ2.0 hadn't been emptied yet. He walked up to the chamber and ran his hand over the thick steel door.

One of the scientists glanced back at him and said, "Oh, Beta-Five! Almost didn't recognize you in the FA outfit. Checking in on the clean-up? We're almost done."

"Good." Beta-Five scratched at the skintight suit and said, "Pardon me, but would you mind letting me do 2.0? I put a lot of work into it, and I'd like to be the one to finish the project."

"Of course! Go right ahead."

Beta-Five walked up to the control panel. He glanced back at the scientists watching him.

"Uh, I believe Section Zeta will need help clearing their samples. They're behind schedule."

"Oh, yes sir!"

Beta-Five sighed once the other scientists left the room. Then he stared at the touch screen interface of the cryogenic control systems. The termination sequence was primed and ready, with two buttons sitting in the middle of the screen.

 _Are you sure you wish to terminate Sample_ _µ_ _2.0?_ it asked him.

Beta-Five's finger hovered over No, but then his finger twitched towards yes. His mind went numb, and sweat trickled down the sides of his suit. He felt the material absorb his sweat and excrete it on its slick, hydrophobic exterior. Drops of sweat fell from his waist and arms to the floor, making soft little plinks on the metal.

No matter how many times he told himself that the Directors would see him save the sample during the memory wipe, he couldn't make himself press yes. Then he had an idea. He thought through the string of button presses, and then he looked away as his fingers flew through the motions. He turned as machines whirred behind him. Doubt crept into his mind, and he second-guessed the hasty screen touches, but he forced himself to keep walking.

As he left the room, he almost ran into Alpha-Fourteen. She flung herself against the wall to keep herself from running into him.

"Oh, Beta-Five, pardon me," she said, brushing off her lab coat. "I was coming to get you, actually. Are you all done in there?"

Beta-Five glanced back. "Yes, we are."

"Do you think it would be a private place to talk?"

He raced through his mind for an answer. "Ventilation shafts. They go all over the place. Why don't we talk over here instead?"

Beta-Five led her to the µ Testing Room. He had her take a seat on the bed and stood by the bookshelf.

"So, the memory wipe will take place in one hour. And, well, you still have the memory in there."

For one panicked moment, he thought she referred to trying to save µ2.0 until he realized what she really meant. "Oh, that."

"I have arranged it so I'll be doing the memory wipe, so we won't have to worry about anyone else seeing that. However, unless we get it removed now, you'll remember it when we replace the memories."

"It's fine."

"What is?"

"I'll keep the memories. It won't affect my performance during the joint project, so it doesn't matter."

For the briefest moment, a smile crept onto her face before she suppressed it. "Alright then. That's all I had to ask." She looked around the room and asked, "What was this for?"

"The µ Project. One of the subjects lived in here."

"Oh really? What was it like?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did it… have a personality?"

"Well, it loved to read, especially fantasy books. It also had a taste for root beer."

"Root beer? Really?"

Beta-Five gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes, it was a treat we gave it once in a while if it exhibited exceptional behavior."

"I see. It must be nice having projects that show affection back. All computers ever do is spit out code. There's times I wish we could trade places."

Beta-Five turned towards the bookcase and picked out The Lord of the Rings. He could see fingerprints from µ2.0 along the corners.

"Did you know what happened to 1.8?" He pointed towards a wall and said, "It went insane and smashed its brain right there. If you look closely enough, you can see a dent it left with its skull."

"Flukes happen…"

"I just killed 2.0. Vaporized it. Gone forever."

Alpha-Fourteen opened her mouth, but no words came out. Then she stood up and walked over to Beta-Five. She reached towards his shoulder, but he brushed the hand away.

"Be glad you can't get attached to computers. No matter how many times I tell myself not to get attached, it always seems to happen without me realizing it. The pain's something you never quite get used to."

Alpha-Fourteen backed away and straightened her lab coat. After a minute of silence, she said, "We should get back. My Director's expecting us."

"Forget I said any of that. It was unprofessional of me."

"Of course. I understand."

Beta-Five followed behind her as they walked into the Gamma Laboratories. On the bottom floor, towers of processors crowded a large, bare room. Past the tangle of cables, a small clearing was set for two dozen chairs. Unconscious agents were carried out of the room and replaced with a dwindling line of agents waiting for memory replacements. Director Sheldon watched the line shrink with a frown on his face.

"Having second thoughts?" Director Lammers asked. "I hope there aren't any other critical details you've neglected to tell us."

"No, it's not that. It's just a bit of indigestion, that's all."

"Oh really? Has your assistant brought back Beta-Five yet?"

"She should've been back minutes ago. I'll send her an email."

Alpha-Fourteen stormed through the cables and said, "No need, I'm back."

"Ah, splendid! We're almost through the remaining active agents. Why don't you have a seat?"

Beta-Five walked towards the spot the Alpha Director pointed towards. The cold, hard plastic of the chair dug into his spine as he leaned back. After a moment, Director Sheldon sat next to him. The Director moaned in pain as his spine cracked.

"Hey, does it hurt?"

"What?"

"The memory replacement. Does it hurt? Any weird dizziness?"

"No, not at all sir."

"Good, good."

Director Lammers held his hand over his mouth as he smirked. Director Sheldon glared at him and said, "I don't see you sitting on this hard-ass chair, getting your memories plucked out."

"Oh yes, poor Director Sheldon," Lammers spat back. "All the other directors have to get a toxic energy-emitting metal chip injected into their spinal cords while poor Director Sheldon only gets a nice, safe memory wipe. The world is truly unfair."

The Alpha Director grunted and turned away. He winced as his spine popped again and asked, "So, what was it like, having your memories gone?"

"Oh, hmm." Beta-Five rubbed his head and said, "I guess I felt empty and lost, but at the same time, I knew who I was and what I was supposed to do. It was… it was odd. Terrifying at times."

"And getting them back?"

"Huh. Didn't think about it. I guess it isn't any different."

"Oh, good." Director Sheldon glanced back at Lammers and leaned closer to him. He hoarsely whispered, "I have a piece of advice for when you're Director one day, and make no mistake of it, you will be Director. You're his favorite, after all. Anyways, make sure no one ever pushes you around, got that? And that goes for Alpha-Fourteen too. Let yourself get harassed by them and you'll only be miserable."

"I can hear you," Lammers called.

Sheldon's face reddened and he said, "It's only fair since you gave advice to my assistant."

"Who, Alpha-Fourteen?" Director Lammers stared up at the ceiling and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Sheldon leaned back and muttered, "Cheeky bastard."

"Heard that too."

Alpha-Fourteen walked over and said, "It's time. You first Director."

Sheldon gritted his teeth and said, "Let's get it over with."

A few minutes later, the Director was carried out, and Alpha-Fourteen started typing on the computer next to him.

"Ready?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'll administer–"

Her voice faded away as the anesthetic trickled through his veins. His head spun, and his vision flickered until it blackened.


	7. Chapters 13-14

Chapter 13: Chihiro de Arkus

A phone call interrupting Mr. Renfield's math lecture made Chihiro sit up in her desk. After a moment, the teacher dropped the phone and grabbed his jacket.

"The principal will be here in a minute. Read quietly until he gets here. Chihiro, come with me. Your father asked me to bring you along."

Chihiro felt the stares on her as she left the room. The only sounds she heard were the footsteps and breathing of Mr. Renfield. His strides were unusually long, as though he was keeping himself from sprinting out the school. She had to jog to keep up with him.

Mr. Renfield took Chihiro to his car, a bulky brown frame with thick wheels. Chihiro felt tiny in the ursaring-sized passenger seat. She wanted to ask her teacher what was happening, but the whiteness of his knuckles from gripping the wheel, visible beneath his fur, and the popping sounds his jaw made as he clenched his teeth, kept her silent.

Mr. Renfield screeched to a halt in a hospital parking spot. He reached the glass doors of the hospital before Chihiro had even left the car, and she had to run to catch up with him at the front desk. A sceptile wearing white robes handed Mr. Renfield a slip of paper.

"He's in room 107," the receptionist said. "Down the hall to the left."

Mr. Renfield darted down the hall as Chihiro reached the desk. She followed after him into the room marked 107 and found her father holding her teacher back. The room had a noisome presence that pressed against her temples. She could hardly see the other zoroark gathered around a teddiursa in a hospital bed, with the mother watching from across the room.

"Get to close and you'll pass out," he told Mr. Renfield. "Please have a seat on the other side of the room."

Mr. Renfield glanced at the bed before joining his wife in the chairs. Then Arkus beckoned his daughter closer.

"I need you t tell me what you feel."

"I feel sick. What is that?"

Arkus hugged her against his shoulder. "You need to be more specific. Please. We need to know what we're up against."

Chihiro listened to it, and then plugged her ears with her hands. "It's weird. Painful. Like Aura but painful. Like yours too."

She felt her father tense up. He guided her out of the room and sat her onto a chair.

"That's what I needed to know, thank you."

"What is that?"

Arkus gave her a glass of water. Drops ran down her chin as she swallowed it all.

"I need to show you something. Can you stand?"

Chihiro pushed herself up. "Where are we going?"

She was surprised when her father led her to a car, and surprised even more when he sat in the driver's seat. Without a word, he pulled out of the hospital's parking lot and drove out of the city. The car bounced and groaned as it drove on the crude dirt road leading ever father from the city limits. Again, Chihiro had questions to ask, but this time, she was kept silent by a foreboding, anxious atmosphere. Arkus kept tapping his finger against the wheel, which seemed to count the moment to an unknowable catastrophe. Shadows, cast by branches overhead, flickered across the road, casting their path in a tumultuous darkness.

As Chihiro's stomach began to protest the skipped lunch, they arrived. The car ground to a slippery halt on the loose gravel road. In a clearing in the woods sat a sandstone block encircled by a wire fence. Two guards, both kecleons, let him and Chihiro through. Arkus slid aside a panel in the stone and pressed a sequence of buttons. The stone shook, and a large slab slid upward on the other side of the rock. Arkus flipped a switch, and most of the lights sprang to life. The few broken LEDs cast shadows on the floor within the light.

The moment she walked through the stone, she felt a faint presence within the walls, something that seeped into her bones and filled her with a touch of otherworldly light.

"It took me a while to get everything working again. This place was so old most of the circuits were shot."

"What is this?" Chihiro walked down the hallway and peeked into each of the rooms. She stopped when she saw the bedrooms. "Is that…"

"That's Fred," Arkus said as he peered over her head. "He's been there for over six hundred years."

Chihiro walked inside and ran her fingers over the sheets. Dust gathered in her fur, gray, fine, like powdered bone.

"Is that a human?"

"Yep. Come on, let's get something to eat."

Chihiro followed her father into the kitchen. She sat down at the kitchen counter as her father rummaged around the pantry and refrigerated room. He came out carrying an armful of vegetables, a wrapped steak, and two brown bottles. He set one bottle in front of Chihiro and cracked the other open. She inspected the paper wrapping around the bottle, but she couldn't read its words.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Root beer." He took a swallow and said, "I can't believe this stuff's still good after six hundred years. Go ahead, try it."

Chihiro snapped the top off and took a cautious sip. She grimaced at the overpowering sweetness and spat it out.

"Ugh, it's too much."

"Really? Well, there's water and other drinks in the fridge. Help yourself."

The inside of the fridge room was packed with fresh vegetables, berries, and slabs of smoked and wrapped meats. The freezer's back compartment had even more meat, linked in sausages, hung on racks, ground into patties, and stacked in steaks. Four basins held water, while smaller containers held berry juice. Chihiro took an oran berry juice and returned to the kitchen. The smell of grilled onions and grilled steak filled the area.

"Wow, there's so much food here," she said.

"I had it stocked up. There should be enough for a few years."

Once the steaks were done, he slid them onto plates and set the table. The meat was tough and chewy, but the spicy seasoning coated every morsel of meat.

"It's good."

"Yep. There's even stuff to make croquettes if you want."

"Wait, am I going to stay here?"

Arkus looked down at his plate. "We'll talk about that later. For now, I want to show you more of the place."

He led her into the entertainment room and showed her the television. She turned it on and flipped through the channels, but it didn't receive any signals.

"It doesn't pick up any stations, but it does play these," Arkus said, gesturing towards the DVDs. She picked one up and tried reading the text on them.

"Why aren't they in our language?"

"They're over six hundred years old." He took her into the hallway and showed her the last door. "Go downstairs, place your hand on a crystal, and ask to learn English."

She peered down the stairs. The stairs seemed to echo with the sound of a beating heart. "Aren't you coming?"

"I can't go down there. Not anymore. Go on."

As she walked down the stone steps, she felt the sound growing louder. Halfway down, the presence ceased to be a mere sound and instead vibrated inside her bones. Her Aura pulsed in rhythm with the surroundings, and she perceived a solemn, egoless sentience in the atmosphere, as though a living library slumbered within the walls. When she reached the bottom, she was greeted with a spacious, glittering cavern. A pond in the heart of the cave reflected the glittering white gems in the ceiling, and gemstones studded the walls. On instinct, she touched the nearest crystal, closed her eyes, and felt a trickle of Aura flow into her.

When she returned upstairs, Arkus asked her, in English, if she could understand him.

"Yes," she answered. "What was that? Why is all that Aura down there?"

"Aura resonates with organic matter. From what I learned, many millions of years ago, a crystal infused with Aura struck the planet. The resulting discharge of Aura killed almost all life, leaving their remains charged with it. Over time, their bodies decomposed and became those diamonds."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Let's put your English to the test, shall we?" he said, brushing her question aside. He plucked Spirited Away from the collection of DVDs and put it into the player. Then he left and brought back a bowl of popcorn.

"Is this where you got my name from?" she asked as the movie started.

"Yep. I always liked that name."

The rest of the movie was spent in silence. Once it was over, Chihiro said, "Well, that was weird."

"You didn't like it?"

"No, not really. None of that made any sense. Are you going to tell me why we're here?"

Arkus turned off the TV and looked up at the ceiling. "There's still a few things I haven't told you yet."

Chihiro gritted her teeth and waited while Arkus took a long, steady swallow of root beer. Then he said, "A long time ago, I was a human."

"Wait, what?"

"Pokemon didn't exist until around seven hundred years ago, and their creation nearly destroyed humanity. This place is the only relic of that past I know of that survived. And that's why humans never liked pokemon. I even used to hunt them. But that all changed a long time ago."

Chihiro felt her face go numb, and she dimly nodded when Arkus looked at her.

"I was transformed, and humanity lost to the pokemon. That's why, six hundred years later, they tried killing us all using my power. I stopped them, but in the process, I made something even worse. A monster. Darkrai. You felt it. It shouldn't exist, yet somehow it does. And as I feared, it's back."

"So, you want me to stay here away from it. What about mom? What about everyone else?"

"They can't stay here, not for very long. If I don't come back in the meantime, don't leave until you're ready. You'll know when you need to leave."

"But–"

Arkus placed his hands on her shoulders. She flinched away at first, but then she leaned against his chest. Though she tried to stop her tears, her father still felt them.

Arkus hugged her. "You don't have anything to cry about. Your dad's going to take care of it."

"Why leave me here? Why can't I stay with you?"

"Because if I fail, you need to be ready. You're the only other one that can defeat Darkrai."

"Can't I at least say goodbye to mom? And Serisen?"

Arkus backed away and looked downward. "I'm sorry. I can't risk it. But your mother wrote you a note."

He handed her the folded sheet of paper. She opened it and read her mother's goodbye note, which told her not to worry and that she would be thinking of her. The handwriting was sloppy, written in a rush.

"And one more thing before I go. I need you to fill this with Aura."

Arkus held out her mother's engagement band. The blue diamonds glittered within the silver interlace. Chihiro pressed her hand against the jewels and pushed her Aura into it. As the gems filled, she felt her eyes droop and her shoulders sag. Once she had finished, she slumped to the floor.

Her father carried her into bed and pulled the sheets over her. Then he kissed her on the forehead and said, "Please be good while I'm gone."

Chihiro struggled to sit up, but she barely managed to raise her head and whisper, "Please don't go."

Chapter 14: Field Agent 5

When he woke up in his bed in the field agent barracks, at first he couldn't remember where he was. Then the memories came to him, and he threw on a fresh suit. He grabbed a granola bar from the communal kitchen unit and ran to the Alpha Section's meeting room. He stuffed the wrapper into a pocket as he walked through the door and took a seat. Shortly after him, the Alpha Director and the Cultural Archives Curator entered and took seats at the head of the table.

"Good, everyone is here," Director Sheldon said. "Darkrai activity was confirmed this morning in Palsitore. Now is the ideal time to request their aid. Field Agent Five, you will act as our ambassador. Follow orders and do nothing to alarm them. Understood?"

FA-Five gave a salute and said, "Yes sir."

"Be sure only to speak Palsitorian while you're there. There's also a box of trackers at the teleport. Use them if they accept our request. There's enough for thirty, and if needed, we can provide more."

"Yes sir."

"Good. Twenty-one, Forty-seven, Forty-nine, and Sixty-two will escort you. I wrote a letter for Keith, give that to him first."

FA-Five took a letter and tucked it next to the granola wrapper. Then the Alpha Director ran a hand through his thinning gray hair.

"You won't have any weapons, and we won't be able to beam you out of there. Please be careful."

"Thank you sir. I'll leave at once."

The other field agents were waiting by the teleportation pods. A fifth agent, controlling the teleporters, walked over and said, "I'll drop you off outside the city limits. Cloak your way to the city hall, then politely reveal yourselves. Good luck."

"Thanks."

The agent gave a weak smile and said, "Don't get sick and throw up all over your suit, alright Five?"

FA-Five forced a smile on his face and asked, "Are you ever going to let that go, One-twelve?"

The smiles lasted for a moment before they vanished. FA-One-twelve gave him a quick hug and said, "Good luck Five."

"Thanks. Make sure you're still awake when I get back, alright?"

Agent One-twelve clapped him on the shoulder. "Let's hope so. Someone has to beam you back." He took a box from the computer table and handed it to him. "The trackers. Don't lose them."

With a gentle push to send him off, Agent Five stepped onto the teleport pod. He and the other agents activated their cloaking devices. A few seconds later, he disappeared in a flash of red light and reappeared on a hill overlooking the city of Palsitore. Even from there, he could see crowds of pokemon walking through the sidewalks like blood cells in a vein.

"Report in," Agent Five said through the radio. The four agents sent their replies, and with his signal, they walked to the city. They leapt across the rooftops, using their padded boots to muffle their sounds. Once they arrived at the city hall, they stopped at the opposite rooftop and watched the entrance.

"The plan, sir?" Forty-nine asked.

"Follow my lead and don't bump into anything."

As an ampharos approached a door, he leapt down and crept up behind it, darting around her tail as she opened the door. Several minutes later, the other agents made it through, each sending a click over the radio once they were through. Five sent three clicks, giving the signal to move past the reception area and into the more secluded offices. Once they made it past three rooms without seeing another pokemon, Five sent a click and they all stopped outside the office of banking affairs. They knocked on the door, and when they received a reply, they turned off the cloaking devices and walked into the door.

A machoke, wearing a loose-fitting suit that puffed into the air around his shoulders, slumped over a pile of papers, reading them through thick-lens glasses and glossing over the text with a fountain pen. Every so often, he would pause to mark the paper or take a sip from his coffee mug. The desk, once a beautiful mahogany, was stained across its surface from numerous spilled cups and leaky pens. A nametag sat on the desk, but it was so coated in dust that the name was illegible. The agents stood in front of his desk for a while, watching him shuffle between papers.

"Is there something you need?" he asked. When he didn't receive a reply, he finally looked up. Upon seeing the humans, he took off his glasses and thoroughly rubbed them before looking again. Then he picked up the phone and dialed a short number.

"Good morning, Mr. Ackerman. I should probably take a vacation as soon as possible. Well sir, I'm currently seeing four humans standing in front of me. Yes, humans, in these weird black clothes. Yes, I'll check to see if they're actually there."

The machoke held his hand over the phone and asked, "Excuse me, but are you actually there?"

"Yes," Agent Five replied in Palsitorian. "We need to speak with Arkus if at all possible. It's about Darkrai."

"Darkrai? Okay, I must be nuts." The machoke spoke into the phone and said, "I don't think so. They said they wanted to speak with Arkus about Darkrai."

After a long pause, the machoke said, "They're real? That's a relief. Okay, I'll tell them." He set the phone down and said, "He'll be here in five minutes. Why don't you have a seat while you wait?"

Five looked behind him. There was only one chair, dusty and rigid with upholstery rigor mortis. The machoke glanced around the room, and then seemed to remember something. He rummaged around his desk drawers and dug out a bag of mints. Most of them were cracked, and the few remaining intact pieces were buried beneath minty white powder.

"Here, have some," he said.

Agent Five stared at the crinkly plastic bag. After a moment, he reached in and grabbed what appeared to be a lone mint; however, he pulled out a chunk of five mints fused together. He snapped it to pieces between his fingers and handed a piece to the other agents. Forty-seven ate hers, while everyone else discreetly tucked them in their pockets. The machoke went to put the bag of mints away, but once he saw the bag, he tossed it in the garbage can.

"So, uh, humans, why did you choose my office?"

"We didn't want to make a scene."

"Oh." The machoke glanced around the room a few times before returning to his paperwork. However, his pen shook slightly as it made uneven rows across the pages.

A minute later, seven police officers arrived, led by Chief Heste. In her hand, she held a pistol large enough to punch through a rhydon's chest. Her thick leather uniform gleamed in the office's dim light, and her officer's badge sparkled on her chest.

"Try anything and I'll blow you a new breathing tube," Heste said. "Let's go."

"You're taking us to Arkus, right?" Agent Five asked.

"I am. Now move it."

The agents were led deeper into the city hall, through a set of doors and down a cavernous set of stairs. Then they crossed an enormous subterranean room, one half cluttered with long wooden tables and the other half left bare. A door on the other side led to a large office room lined with metal plates. Four zoroark were seated behind a large stone table. In the center sat Arkus, marked by the gold trim of his suit, his pale-green eyes, and the white ring around his right eye. Two sat on his left, and the other sat to his right, separated by an empty seat. Those three leered at him with gleaming yellow eyes, while Arkus' were pools of still marsh water. The officers fanned out along the walls while Heste took the one remaining seat.

"Please, have a seat," Arkus said, sweeping his arm over the table.

Agent Five was about to remark on the lack of seats on his side of the table when they grew out of the stone, elegantly carved as though they were carefully molded with sandpaper. Agent-Five took a seat in the center, and the other agents sat to his sides.

"I assume you are aware of the incident that transpired twelve years ago."

"We are. That's why we've been… reluctant to ask for your help. Our leader would like you to read this."

As he reached for the letter in his pocket, his fingers also closed around the granola wrapper. He had the letter halfway out of the pocket before he noticed the extra baggage and hastily stuffed it back inside. Arkus plucked the letter out of his outstretched hand, swiped it open, and pulled out the paper inside.

"Do you mind if I read the contents aloud?" Arkus asked.

"Not at all."

Arkus cleared his throat and began reading. "To Arkus, as the only leader of our people currently conscious, I first must make several apologies. Firstly, for the disaster caused by Section Delta twelve years ago that has led us to this current predicament, and secondly, for continuing our surveillance of your affairs without your knowledge or consent. With these apologies out of the way, I must ask – no, beg your help. There were once thousands of us, but now only three hundred remain awake. All of the others, including the Directors of Sections Beta, Gamma, and Zeta, have succumbed to Darkrai. All our research has yielded nothing, and I fear that your assistance is the only hope we have for them."

Arkus unfolded the bottom of the letter. "I know that you cannot trust us. However, I ask that you meet me in person in exchange for our location, a secret we have safeguarded for centuries. You may bring as many as you wish; however, I ask that you arrive as soon as possible. More fall asleep every day, and we have less than a month before Darkrai claims us all. My ambassador can answer any questions you have. With the sincere desire we can come to a mutual understanding, Alpha Director Sheldon."

Arkus laid the letter out on the table, and the other pokemon peered at the penmanship. The zoroark to his right said, "It's a trap. Definitely. Why else wouldn't he meet us in person?"

"Look at it from their point of view," Arkus countered. "They have no way of knowing how we would respond or what they would do to their leader."

"And yet they dare request your presence?"

"Pardon me," Agent Five said, "But Director Sheldon is one of the few programmers we have left. Without him, we risk losing everyone who's currently unconscious, not to mention he leads the research on Darkrai. We are all he could afford to send."

"Hollow excuses," a zoroark muttered.

"Enough." Arkus closed his eyes for a moment, and for a second, the other zoroark glanced at him in confusion. Then they grinned.

"We are in agreement," Arkus said. "I will speak with your Director."

Though he had accomplished his mission, for some reason, whether it was the predatory grins in front of him or something within, he felt as though disaster crept in his shadow.


	8. Chapters 15-16

Chapter 15: Field Agent Five

Field Agent Five glanced at the grandfather clock in the waiting room every minute. He didn't anticipate the hours of delegating tasks and relaying orders Arkus had to go through before he could leave the city. Everything from the line of succession to public relations were discussed and handled in the room down the hall. The wrappers of hamburgers and empty boxes of fries were heaped in a pile between the agents.

"Do you think they're going to help us?" Twenty-one asked.

"They will," Forty-nine said. "It's their problem too."

"But you saw how they grinned at us," Sixty-two said. "What did he tell them?"

"We can deal with that later," Five answered. "Darkrai's our problem right now."

"Yeah, but what's going to stop them from turning on us once it's gone?" Forty-seven asked. "They'll know where we are and what our defenses are like. That's probably why they're grinning."

"We don't have a choice," Forty-nine said.

The room fell quiet, the silence broken only by the tapping of sixty-two's foot on the wooden floor and the ponderous ticking of the clock. Then, when the clock struck four and sounded a muffled chime, a zoroark opened the door and said, "We're ready."

They were led to the meeting room, where Arkus and six other zoroark waited. They were all dressed in gray tuxedos that seemed cream-colored against their fur and had pistols strapped to their waists. On Arkus' left arm was a metal armlet lined with blue diamonds. Agent Five lowered the suit's eyepiece onto his left eye and analyzed it. He was nearly blinded by the volume of its energy until the device auto-scaled the output to one percent. The energy within writhed and pressed against the facets of the diamonds, struggling to break free from its crystalline confines.

Arkus bowed his head and said, "I apologize for making you wait. These are my six escorts. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes," Agent Five answered. "Please take these." He handed each of them a red, metal button and said, "Press them, and you will be taken to Sinex. Please allow Sixty-two to go first."

Arkus nodded, and Agent Sixty-two pressed a button on his suit, and a second later, he vanished. Sixty-two told him over the radio to proceed.

"Go ahead," Agent Five told Arkus. "You will be transferred in whatever order you press the buttons."

Arkus glanced at the zoroark to his right. The zoroark took a button and pressed it. A moment later, Arkus cocked his head, as if listening to a radio message, and then grabbed a button. The other zoroark followed suit, and they all vanished together. A few moments later, Agent Five was beamed back to base. He sought out One-Twelve, but he was instead greeted by a different agent.

"Hey Four-twenty nine, is One-Twelve around?"

The agent's face fell. "He's in the infirmary now. Nodded off an hour ago."

"Shit. Thanks for telling me."

When Agent Five arrived at the meeting room, the zoroark were already seated in front of Director Sheldon. The Director rubbed his balding head and opened his arms.

"Welcome to Sinex, and thank you for coming."

"Do you mind if I inspect the bodies before we begin?" Arkus asked.

"The bodies? They're in the infirmary, but you can't go in there. We lost a few agents who tried. But, we can look through the door if you like."

Arkus nodded, and Director Sheldon called for a personal transport. A hovering cargo freighter, a boxy metal platform outfitted with twenty chairs that glided off the ground on a cushion of air, whirred to a stop outside the meeting room's door. With everyone on board, the freighter lumbered across the hallway to the insulated doors of the infirmary. Inside, the lights were off, the lights on the medical units glowing like constellations. Lights on robots flashed across the infirmary like comets. Agent Five, though knowing what lay within the darkness, couldn't help but wish the lights would remain off forever.

However, with a clap of the Director's hands, the lights in the infirmary ceiling snapped to life, dispelling the colorful lights and revealing row upon endless row of lifeless bodies in carefully tended hospital beds. If it weren't for the steady beat of the cardiometers and the look of terror on the faces, one would swear it was a mausoleum.

"Why didn't you ask for our help sooner?" Arkus asked.

"You need to ask? The zoroark destroyed Section Epsilon. We don't even know how it happened. One day, Epsilon controlled a vast human empire, and the next, they were exterminated and replaced by your kind. And then Section Delta attacked you and lost, giving you reason to hate us. I was tempted not to ask at all, but looking at them… I don't think there's a worse fate than that."

The Alpha Director took his touch pad out of his lab coat, opened up a file, and handed it to Arkus.

"I'll cut to the chase. We have a weapon which, theoretically, should destroy Darkrai. However, using it requires your blood."

Arkus inspected the image, and then glared at the Director. "And why exactly did you develop such a device?"

The Director rubbed his hands together and bowed his head. "Well, we did secure a sample of the Father's blood during the Delta incident. Using data we gathered, we made a device that mixes Aura and Darkness, but we don't have enough blood to fire it."

"So you need a zoroark's blood?"

"Yours specifically. It doesn't work for less."

"I can't allow you to have my blood." He held up the armlet and said, "Rest assured I came prepared to deal with Darkrai myself."

Director Sheldon glanced at the armlet. "Using that could kill you. Do you think your successor would treat us as fairly as you, a former human?"

A long silence passed as Arkus stared at the lifeless figures in the infirmary. Then he curled up his fist and sent a nebulous surge of power up his arm. Dark sparks crackled from his claws and hissed as they touched the floor.

"Keith is gone. Don't think you'll get any sympathy from me by bringing up that dead past."

"I see."

The infirmary lights, set on a timer, went out, shrouding the room in darkness once more. Yet, a ghostly afterimage of faces haunted by nightmares and emaciated frames punctured with needles lingered in Agent Five's eyes. The glowing lights, by contrast, seemed dimmer and muted in color by the sudden absence of light. The illusion of a celestial wonder, so quickly dismissed by the rising of the sun, could never return with the same sense of immutability.

"Well then, would you at least consider this favor then? I would like Agent Five to escort you at all times, so that I may be informed of any… emergencies."

Arkus' eyes darted towards Agent Five, and he felt himself quail beneath the steely pale-green gaze.

"I suppose it can't be helped. Then if you don't mind, we've had a long day."

"Of – of course. We've had living quarters arranged, or were you planning on returning to Palsitore?"

"I better stay. For all I know you could all be asleep by tomorrow morning."

The Director broke into a sweat as he anxiously chuckled. "Right, right. Well then, I'll leave you with Agent Five, and if we find anything on the scanners, we'll let you know."

Director Sheldon calmly walked around the corner of a hallway then broke into a sprint, and the other humans jogged off to the maintenance facilities. Agent Five glanced at the zoroark, and then gestured to follow him. He led them to a strip of rooms once belonging to Section Beta's research agents, all of them modified with bunk beds.

"Since all of Beta's RA's are out, these rooms were prepared for you. If you need anything, food can be acquired through the kitchen units, otherwise, let me know."

Two of the zoroark requested to sleep in the room with Arkus, even offering to take the floor, but Arkus ordered them away. Agent Five followed Arkus into the bedroom in the middle of the hallway, labeled with a seven.

"Hey, do you have any hammocks?" he asked. "I'm not fond of beds."

"Hammocks? Well, I–"

"Never mind, I got it." He waved his hand, and the sheets sprang off the bottom bunk, wrapping themselves around the bedposts to form a hammock.

Arkus walked over to the kitchen unit and pressed buttons on the display. "So, these things have food, right? How do you use these?"

"Oh, well, I'm not too familiar with them, but you just use the display, like this." Out of reflex, his fingers swiped through menu after menu until he came upon the pizza pockets. His mouth watered as he pushed the send button. Moments later, a steaming pizza pocket on a platter left the oven.

"Huh. I guess I'll have one too," he said, hitting the send button. "These things have drinks too, right?"

Agent Five scrolled through the menus and came upon a bottle of root beer. Without thinking about it, he sent for it, and a bottle slid out of the machine.

"Oh wow, you have Sprechers too!" he said as he hit send.

"You've had it before? Where?"

Arkus' eyes narrowed, and he said, "They were a delicacy back in the village. They were only opened on rare occasions, and they ran out years before I left."

Arkus remained silent through the meal. Agent Five watched him from the corner of his eye as he nibbled at the pocket's crust and sipped the root beer. Then once he finished the pocket, he drained the bottle in one long gulp.

"You mind turning around for a moment?"

"What? Oh, okay."

Once Agent Five turned around and placed a hand over his eyes, Arkus unbuttoned his tuxedo and slid out of it. Goaded by his curiosity, Agent Five parted his fingers and glanced through the mirror as Arkus undressed. The first thing he noticed was the strange smoothness between his legs. Agent Five didn't know what he expected to see, but the absence of any defining features seemed somehow more alien than any possible appendage. Then he stared at the ring around his eye – it seemed to glow in the room's faint light.

"You like what you see?" Arkus grumbled.

Agent Five started and realized that Arkus was staring at him through the mirror. "Oh, sorry. I, uh–"

"Don't worry about it. I guess I'm not that mad."

Arkus sliced a hole into the air and pulled a pair of pajama pants out of it. He wriggled into them and then hopped into the hammock.

"You know, there are times when I wake up and forget what I look like. When I look into the mirror, sometimes I expect to see a human face, and others, whatever that blue furry thing I was is called. I should really try to remember that."

"Why?" Agent Five asked as he clambered onto the top bunk. "Weren't you the only one?"

Even though he couldn't see Arkus' eyes, he could imagine them narrowing them in the brief pause that followed his question.

"You have a point. Good night."

As Agent Five stared up at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to arrive, he felt that a silence, thicker than the darkness that enveloped them, had settled into the room.

Chapter 16: Field Agent Five

Arkus rose early the next morning, well before the alarm Agent Five had set, and quietly got dressed in his suit. Agent Five didn't wake until the door closed. In a panic, he threw on his clothes and ran after him. The zoroark gathered in the hallway of Beta bedrooms, and though they said nothing, Agent Five sensed a private conversation between them. Then they walked off in different directions, and Arkus took off towards the Beta Laboratories.

Through the silent laboratories, its computers and machines abandoned, the only sounds were the fans in the ventilation shafts and Agent Five's footsteps. Like a shadow, Arkus didn't make a sound as he drifted through the hallways nor did he seem to touch anything, yet there seemed to be the implication of an invisible specter that occupied his space, a force that Agent Five could neither see nor comprehend, yet he could feel it brush against his skin with each subtle stirring of the air and each time Arkus flinched to see something out of the corner of his eye. The silence unsettled Agent Five, and he sought some way to break it. However, Arkus seemed cold and unapproachable, like a shadow beneath the clouds.

After an hour of combing the facilities, they walked into a testing room that held a bed, shelves of mind puzzles, and another shelf laden with books. Agent Five picked one up and brushed it off.

"Lord of the Rings, huh?" he asked. "I wonder what this is doing here." Tears welled up in his eyes as he saw the book, and he rubbed them away.

Arkus said nothing as he walked through the rooms. His gaze wandered over the shelves without observing them. As he reached for the door, Agent Five cleared his throat.

"I don't know what I've done to… upset you," he said, "But I apologize."

Arkus put his hand on the doorknob. His fingers caressed the metal for a moment before he gently twisted it. The door opened a crack, creeping outward, before Arkus closed it and turned around.

"It's not your fault," Arkus said. "Wait, were you crying?"

"I got dust in my eyes, I think. Seems like the lab was abandoned before this all started."

Arkus walked over to the bed and sat down. A large cloud of dust rose into the air, and Arkus brushed it away with his hand. Agent Five, without thinking about it, sat down next to him. The bed felt unusually comfortable beneath him, as though it remembered his shape. He opened his mouth to speak, but the gurgle of his stomach cut him off.

"Ah, we left without breakfast," Arkus said. "Here, I'll get it."

He traced a circle in the air, and a rift in space appeared, surrounded by a thin black halo. As he reached through it, the halo writhed and sparked. He tapped on a kitchen unit on the other side and, a moment later, he pulled two pizza pockets and two root beers out of the rift.

"I hope you don't mind," he said, "I'm not familiar with your other options."

Agent Five finished his pizza pocket in three bites and washed it down with the root beer. A tear came to his eye as its flavor and carbonation tickled his tongue.

"Crying again?" Arkus asked.

Agent Five smiled. "Heh, I must've been really hungry."

As Arkus nibbled his, he asked where the other humans were, and Agent Five told him that some were searching for Darkrai while the rest were on maintenance duty, keeping the production sugar and salt solutions going.

"Why do you need those so much?"

"So the people in comas don't starve."

Arkus looked at his pizza pocket and set it aside. "If you had such a food shortage, then why didn't you tell me? I could send for supplies."

"We're good on food – we've got enough to feed the whole facility for a hundred years at least. Problem is, we can't feed that to comatose people. So don't worry about it."

"Well, alright then." Arkus chomped through the rest of his pizza pocket and started chugging his root beer. However, halfway through the bottle, he stopped, looked at the liquid inside, and set it on the floor. He stood up and walked towards the door.

"You realize the last human I trusted betrayed me, right?" he asked without turning around. "And the one before that tried to kill me. He succeeded too, in a fashion. So you'll have to forgive me for not trusting so easily again."

Agent Five's fingers went numb as he thought about how to respond. Apologies seemed insufficient, and promises too hollow. Then, without thinking, he asked a question.

"Did you care about pokemon when you were human?"

Arkus turned towards him and said, "More than I thought possible." He paused for a moment, running his fingers over the diamonds in the armlet. "What about you? Do you care about us?"

The question echoed inside his mind. It felt as though he had been asking himself that question for a very long time and never found an answer. This time, an answer came, in the form of a tangle of emotions – shame, guilt, sorrow, anxiety, fondness – all unmoored from their memories. Gripped by these emotions, he tightened his grip on his bottle until it cracked, sending shards and soda to the floor. Cuts in his hand bled into the beverage and gave off an effervescent smell of iron and sugar.

"I keep telling myself not to care," he said, not recalling such a time. "I knew I shouldn't care. It wasn't my job, it wasn't for the good of humanity, and it would only get me in trouble. But God damn it! I don't know why, but I care. There are times when I wish we could all get along, that we didn't have to hide and fear you, and I don't even know why."

Tears were in his eyes – he didn't realize he was crying until he wiped his blood-smeared hand across his face, leaving a crimson trail of tears on his cheeks. Arkus stooped over him and took his hands. A thin, wispy haze of darkness slithered across his cuts and knitted them shut.

"You don't seem alright."

Arkus conjured up another root beer and handed it to him. Agent Five took it and drained it all in one swallow, and then he said, "I guess I've been grappling with that for a long time."

"I understand."

Arkus sat back down on the bed and asked, "What is it like, being a field agent?"

Agent Five told of the seven years of general education with dozens of other children his age, followed by the categorization exams, his near-passing marks for a researcher that put him in the field, eleven years of operational drills, electrical engineering, stealth lessons, and computer programming, then gathering samples and collecting data for whichever Section had his services for the year. As he wound through his life story, he sought out the source of his frustration and guilt, and found nothing but an eerie perfection in the memories, so carefully riddled with a perfect quantity of short-comings, mistakes, and accidents to form an average, extraordinarily ordinary life. Everything from his anguish at missing the forty-second question on the researchers' exam to the years of jokes from tripping over mashed potatoes felt inadequate when faced with the anguish within his heart. He sought the cumulonimbus to his thunder, the inferno to his smoke, and found only cirrus and candles.

As if recognizing his search, Arkus asked, "So, what made you care so much?"

"I don't know. I guess it's the way I am."

At first, Arkus frowned at his answer, but then he brushed his hand in the air and said, "I would've given the same answer."

Arkus stood up and walked over to one of the walls. Agent Five stared at the flowing mane behind his head, and then his eyes drifted towards the puzzles on the wall. He stood up and reached for a deck of memory cards, each sorted in pairs of shapes and colors. Some had names of colors in contradictory font, such as a purple orange or a blue red. Though they seemed new to his eyes, he felt a visceral nostalgia as the cards slid across his fingers. The nostalgia, however, was followed by a cold, deep regret that knotted his stomach. He set the cards down and turned towards Arkus, but he still faced the wall.

"Is everything alright?" Agent Five asked.

"I'm thinking."

"About how to find Darkrai?"

"No." Arkus ran a hand through his mane and said, "I never found out why Ath gave my mentor Nolan his blood. It was supposed to be him that drank his blood, not me. Was it payment, or an invitation? Why did he trust him? How is trust made?" Arkus turned towards him and asked, "How is trust made?"

"I – I don't know. What do you mean?"

"You humans decided to put your trust in me. Why?"

"Well, we didn't have any other choice, so..."

"Then you don't trust me, do you?"

Agent Five sat down on the bed and ran his fingers through the sheets. As he rubbed dust between his fingers, he said, "Maybe the others don't, but I trust you."

"Why?"

"Because I know you care. You still care about us, no matter how many times you tell yourself you shouldn't, just as I do."

Arkus sat next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Care, is it? I suppose if we all cared about each other then there would be no reason to fight."

Arkus reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of dark liquid. He placed it in Agent Five's hand and curled his fingers over it.

"I already talked it over with the others. They aren't happy about it, but they won't resist me."

Agent Five felt tears welling up in his eyes. "But… but…"

"I'm not entrusting this to humans, or to Sinex, or to your Director. I'm entrusting this to you. I know you'll do the right thing with it."

A subconscious part of him tried to smash the vial against the floor, but he repeatedly reminded himself of his duties as a field agent and made himself shove the vial into his pocket.

"Thank you," he said, holding back his tears. "Thank you."

That strange reluctance to surrender the vial haunted him throughout the rest of the day as they wandered the halls of Sinex, churned his gut as he handed it to Director Sheldon, and clamored in his mind as he stared at the pitch-black ceiling of the Beta scientist's bedroom and listened to the smooth, rhythmic sound of Arkus' breathing.


	9. Chapters 17-18

Chapter 17: Chihiro de Arkus

After a week of exile from her friends and family, alone with a pile of Studio Ghibli films, a well-stocked kitchen, and a cave of sentient crystals, she still hadn't managed to make a croquette that didn't slide straight down her throat from all the grease coated on them. She never had managed the delicate balance of heat and oil, and rather than burn her croquettes, Chihiro decided it would be best to slather them with oil. She felt guilty each time she poured out the excess oil down the sink, but not quite as guilty as when she had to throw away charred croquette lumps as hard as rocks.

She had sampled the other preserved foodstuffs, avoiding anything with English print on the labels. However, from time to time she stumbled upon a jar of ambiguous fruity mush that reeked of lost human civilization when she opened them. One particular jar, which she remembered with regret, held a stringy vegetable pickled in a liquid so foul and bitter that she dropped it on the floor. Four days later, the pantry still reeked of garlic and brine.

Out of the most profound boredom that Chihiro ever felt, one that surpassed even her month-long shut-in period, she watched through every single Studio Ghibli DVD in the collection, and she found none of them entertaining. She regarded humans flying on broomsticks and in noisy mechanical contraptions with equal amounts of scorn and disbelief. The walking mechanical monstrosities of Howl's Moving Castle seemed as unreal as the wartime suffering in Grave of the Fireflies, and no creature that ever graced the television screen seemed even remotely plausible to her world of diverse uniformity.

However, she kept watching them, only because the television, with a full spectrum of color and unparalleled sound quality was enough of a novelty to distract her from the cold, lonely emptiness best personified by the dusty old skeleton in the bed.

Every morning, just after she woke up, she tried to make a gate back home, and each time the gate showed her the faintest glimpse of her bedroom before its nebulous borders hissed and burst into a shower of blue sparks.

She knew the crystals were to blame. The few times she convinced herself to meditate in front of the pond, the ancient, powerful presence surrounded her and poured knowledge into her. Yet, it refused to explain why her gates wouldn't work. Each time she asked, the presence fell silent and receded from her. Once she realized this, she asked the crystals as many times as she could, relishing in the bubble it made around her.

However, on the seventh morning, she woke to an overwhelming sensation of danger, which felt like someone had laid cables underneath her skin and lit them all up at once, making her muscles twitch and spasm as current flowed through them.

She didn't know how long the sensation left her paralyzed on the edge of her bed, her legs tangled and held up by her sheets while her cheek grew cold against the stone floor. Then sensation returned to her limbs, and she wriggled until she could stand. Not knowing what else to do, she ran to the pond, but the crystals were silent, subdued, distant. She tried calling to them, but she received no response. She tried probing them with Aura, and the presence shrank away from her touch.

For the next four days, she couldn't stay still. She wandered through the rooms, only sleeping when her eyes closed themselves and only eating when her stomach growled. She didn't even taste what she scooped from the jars, and when she finished, she left the jars on the floor wherever she happened to be. After a few days, she started tripping on the jars and even broke one. She had just enough presence of mind to sweep the bigger glass shards towards the wall before walking on.

Then, on the fourth day of her absent-minded wandering, off of a faint whim, she tried once more to make a gate. This time, the Aura seemed to form the gate of its own accord, molding a bright blue halo in front of her feet.

However, when she peered through the rift, she didn't see her own room. She didn't recognize the bed covers and squishy gray carpeting until she peered further inside and saw Serisen getting dressed. He was pulling up his pants when he saw her in the mirror's reflection. He jumped back and fell on his bed, kicking a sock onto his face in the process.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I'll go now."

"No, uh, wait!" Serisen shouted, yanking his pants up. "Where've you been?"

"Oh, well, my dad took me somewhere. Did I miss much at school?"

Serisen flung the sock off his face. "Haven't you heard? School was cancelled due to the sickness going around."

"Sickness?"

"There's been a couple hundred so far who've fallen asleep and don't wake up. Nobody knows what's causing it."

Serisen lowered her eyes to the floor. "Oh really? Sounds terrible."

"So, what's on the other side anyways?" Serisen walked over to the rift, and Chihiro backed through it.

"You shouldn't come over here."

"Why not?" After he asked, blood trickled from his nose. He wiped it away and looked at the stain on his fur. "Oh, that."

"I'm so sorry! I'll leave now!"

"No, wait!" Serisen shouted, reaching towards her, but Chihiro closed the gate before he could come through. A few hairs, coated with his blood, fell onto the floor. She almost opened another gate to his room, but the blood on the floor made her decide against it. Instead, she opened a gate to her own bedroom.

Aside from a fine layer of dust over her desk, everything looked the way she had it the morning before she left for school. She walked towards the door, but a bent metal rod, hiding beneath the covers of her bed, tripped her and sent her falling towards the dresser. Out of reflex, she pushed her hands forward and released a surge of Aura that left cracks in her dresser's drawers.

Chihiro searched the apartment, but neither of her parents was home. She took some leftover croquettes out of the fridge, heated them up, and sat down in front of the television. She first took a few steaming bites from the meaty, savory goodness on her plate, wishing that she could manage the same culinary perfection. Then she turned on the television, but every channel put out nothing but static.

"Aww, come on," she moaned at the T.V. "I'd almost take Porco Rosso right now."

When she turned off the television, a sudden pressure settled onto her skull. Slight at first, the pressure steadily applied more pressure until it felt as though her brains were going to squeeze out through her ears. A wave of nausea hit her gut, and the croquettes crawled their way to the back of her throat. Chihiro fell to the floor and struggled to lift herself up.

The door opened and slammed shut. Chihiro faced the door and tried to call out, but her mother fell to the floor and didn't move. Startled, Chihiro gasped, and the vomit she was holding back surged from her mouth, forming a chunky brown puddle in front of her face.

"Mom," she gasped, spitting a chunk of meat out of her mouth. She reached out, but the strength left her arms, and she couldn't even grip the carpet.

Then the threads came, millions of them, far too many to count, each one a shadow that swallowed the light. She felt them burrowing into her skull, worming around inside her head, tying nooses in her mind. She surrounded herself with a veil of Aura, to no avail. The threads tunneled through it, and the millions of tiny holes they left ate away at her Aura until nothing remained.

At once, the threads, having tied themselves around her brain, began to tighten. However, they could find no grip in her flesh. Each strand slid off and flailed in her mind until they dissolved into nothingness.

The pressure left, leaving Chihiro with a light-headed dizziness. Her vision buzzed with the static of a million tiny lights, and when she tried to stand up, she toppled over onto the table. In her last thoughts, the moment before she passed out, she recognized the darkness that tried to swallow her.

"Dad… dad why?"

Only oblivion answered her.

When Chihiro woke up, she was assaulted by on overpowering stench, not only that of the vomit on the floor and on her lips, but a far more foul stench, one that bypassed her nose and went straight to her mind. Through a sixth sense, she could feel the stench emanating from the whole city, rising into the wind like vapors from a sewer.

A scratching sound, which came from the kitchen, brought her to her feet. A zoroark was standing on the counter, pawing at the cabinets and leaving long scratch marks in the wood. When a claw hooked on the cabinet handle, it flung the door open and grabbed an unopened box of pasta. It gnawed a hole into the box and poured the raw spaghetti into its mouth.

"Mom?"

The zoroark turned towards her with a vacant stare and continued eating. Chihiro saw the threads of darkness coiled in her mind, stifling various portions of her brain. The entire frontal cortex was asphyxiated, a dim and lifeless mass of flesh that wilted under the intellectual shackles. Chihiro cried, the tears dripping off her chin into the vomit at her feet. She started forward, reaching her foot over the puddle of vomit, but the animalistic way her mother chewed the hard, tasteless plastic in her mouth made her shudder and curl into a ball in the corner.

"Dad, why?"

Chapter 18: Agent Five

"It's funny," Arkus said as he ate a pizza pocket. "I trusted you with my life, but I don't even know your name."

"It's Agent Five."

"No, your real name."

"That is my name."

Arkus put down his plate on the floor of the bedroom and turned towards him. "What do you mean, that is your name? It's just a number!"

"It's to remind us of our task. Once we have finished rebuilding, we will take names like we used to."

"Well, I'll give you a name. That is, if you don't mind."

Agent Five mentally shied away from the offer, but as he thought it over more, a baffling surge of emotions rose within him, a struggle between duty and his peculiar affection for the zoroark leader that threatened to tear his head open. Underneath all that was the profound sense of guilt that had haunted him since the previous day, when he had received Arkus' blood.

"I… I don't mind."

"Alright then, let me think for a moment. Haku? No, not that one. Not Porco either, that doesn't suit. Hmm… how about Ashi then? Ashi Taka.

"Ashi Taka? Where does that name come from?"

Arkus turned towards the wall. "I can't tell you. Sorry."

"Oh. I understand." Agent Five glanced around the room, and his gaze fell upon the kitchen unit. "How about a root beer?"

"Not right now, thanks." Arkus rubbed his throat and said, "You know what? I'll have one."

As Arkus drank his root beer, he turned around and said, "Ashi Taka comes from a tale I heard. It's about a man who stands against others of his kind to protect the world he loves."

"Then why—" Agent Five cut the question short and instead asked, "How does it end?"

"It seems to end well, but I'm never sure of that. Scars remained afterwards."

"Scars. Everything has scars, doesn't it?"

"Don't I know it!" Arkus said with a laugh. He pointed at the ring around his eye and said, "Some scars stick around for centuries."

"How'd you get that?"

"I was hunting tauros when one rammed my gun. The scope left that mark. I got two fucking new bodies since then and it's still there!"

"We could get that removed," Agent Five said. "There's surgical procedures that could fix that."

Arkus looked down. After a minute of silence, he said, "Thanks, but no. This scar's sometimes the only thing that convinces me I'm still me. What about your scar? Why didn't you have it removed?"

"Oh, this?" Agent Five asked, pointing to the mark under his eye. "No, this is a birthmark. They could remove it, I suppose, but I like it. I think it looks like the Sinex Phoenix, but everyone else tells me it looks like a tear?"

"A tear? But it's pointing in the wrong direction! If you were crying up-side down, maybe it would make sense. No, I'd say it's just a triangle."

"And you're crying in all directions, judging by that ring."

"Huh. What gave you that idea?"

Agent Five shrugged. "Just came to mind."

Arkus started to laugh, but he cut himself off. He walked towards his door and cocked his ear towards the hallway.

"What's wrong?" Agent Five asked.

"Something's off."

A violent quake shook the building, knocking Agent Five off his bed. Arkus stayed on his feet, staying steady and upright as the room shook and the kitchen unit flickered on and off.

"Let's go," Arkus shouted once it was over. "Now!"

Agent Five sprinted after him, but by the time he made it into the hallway, Arkus was already gone. He looked around the hallways, trying to find where he went, when he received a message on his tablet.

"Get Arkus to the conference room now!" Director Sheldon said. His voice was cracked and muffled behind a hiss of static. "Darkrai attacked here and we need help!" Then, in the background, someone said "It's back!" before the video cut off.

The lab shook again, sending Agent Five sprawling on the floor as he tried to run forward. This quake passed far more quickly, and once it had, Agent Five sprinted for the conference room. His only thought as he ran was to wonder how he had gotten so out of shape after all his physical training before he arrived at the elevator leading down to the room. He rushed into the elevator and closed his eyes, trying not to imagine what would happen if another quake hit while he was inside.

When he reached the bottom, he was greeted by a mess. The walls and ceiling had long gouge marks seared into them, and the floor had melted into slag before it cooled, forming jagged cracks and lumpy ridges like a monster's skin. However, all the faces around him wore smiles, and the humans exchanged tearful hugs.

Director Sheldon walked up to Agent Five and clapped him on the shoulder. "It worked! We got the son of a bitch!"

"What worked?"

"The energy cannon! It sent that bastard straight to hell, and everyone's waking up! Woohoo!"

Arkus walked up to them and said, "I'll be going then. Once I explain the situation to everyone back home, I'll return and we can begin making our agreement."

"Yes, of course, of course," the Director said with a sigh. "We'll pay our debts. You have our word on that."

"Thank you." Arkus waved his hand in front of him, but nothing happened. The other zoroark tried with a similar lack of results.

"It seems that some residual effect is preventing me from traveling. May I use a teleporter?"

"Oh, uh, well, the EMP from the cannon took out most of our teleporters, but we do have one down here that should work. We keep it down here for emergencies, along with other equipment. The wall's reinforced so no radiation can get through. Problem is, we have to recharge it each time we use it, and that takes a while. Only one of you will be able to go back for now."

One zoroark volunteered to go back and protested when Arkus decided to go back himself. After a short argument, the zoroark stood aside.

As two agents slid back a panel on the back wall, Agent Five felt a massive wave of dread surge up in his gut. His skin crawled as he saw the tiny gray sphere attached to a twenty foot laser. Somewhere, deep within his subconscious, he recognized that machine, though its purpose and the reason for his fear escaped him. He reached towards Arkus and tried to warn him, but it was too late. The door sealed shut behind him.


	10. Chapters 19-20

Chapter 19: Genocide

With Arkus gone, an uneasy silence fell between the zoroark and the humans. As Director Sheldon was about to activate the teleporter, a zoroark asked its companions "Do you hear something?" Then a blade jutted out from its chest, soaked with its blood. All six zoroark died before they could react, their blood pooling onto the floor. Then six agents deactivated their cloaking devices and dragged the corpses away.

Director Sheldon stared at the blood stains on the floor, too shocked for words for a minute. Then he bellowed, "What is the meaning of this? I didn't order any of this! This is insubordination! We had an agreement with them and you just ruined it!"

Agent Five felt his hands grow cold. He tucked them under his armpits and tried to look away from the mess, but he couldn't. It happened so quickly he couldn't believe his eyes, and yet a part of him felt as though he was expecting it.

"Correction," someone said from outside of the room, "You don't remember giving the order." Though Agent Five didn't recognize the voice, it felt almost as familiar as his own. The Beta Director walked in, going in a circular route to avoid the puddle of blood.

"Director Lammers! What's the meaning of this? And why aren't you still in the infirmary?"

"You'll remember it all in a bit. Let's get you to a terminal." The director turned towards him and said, "You too, Beta Five."

 _But my name is Agent Five,_ he thought, but even as he thought it, that truth he believed felt as hollow as Sinex had been the past week.

He and Director Sheldon were once again seated side by side at the memory terminals. Once they were finished, Director Sheldon leapt from his chair and let out a huge laugh and danced around.

"We got him! Woohoo! It worked! It fucking worked! Yes! I didn't think it would work in a million years, but by God, it worked!"

No one noticed Beta Five shed a tear and quickly wipe it away.

"How about we celebrate a little?" Director Lammers asked. "I'm sure you're dying to boast about the plan, and we shouldn't keep him waiting."

"Him? Oh, Arkus! You didn't capture him yet?" Director Sheldon rubbed his head and said, "Sure. Why not have some fun."

"The communication panel is right here," Director Lammers said, gesturing to a computer. It contained a huge display and one large, red button. The two directors sat down in front of it, and they had Beta Five sit in a third chair. A monitor lit up, revealing the inside of the chamber. Arkus saw the screen and walked towards it.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Nope!" Director Sheldon said with a feral grin on his face. "We've deceived you, Arkus. We made a prison just for you."

Arkus scowled at the camera. "I see. And my escort?"

"All dead! We killed them the moment you stepped inside."

His scowl deepened as he said, "I see. So, what now? You do realize Palsitore won't take this lightly, and I already informed them of where your base is."

Sheldon's grin widened. "Oh, we've taken care of that too. All it took was a bit of your blood."

"What did you do?" Arkus shouted.

"Oh, we haven't done it yet," Director Sheldon answered, "But we will soon. Rest assured that no pokemon will be killed. We learned that lesson from Delta. Hmm… let's say that they'll make the perfect pets in our new civilization."

"And how did you hide this all from me?"

Director Sheldon leaned forward. "That's the fun part! We all had our memories changed so you would never catch on. We also erased all the real records in the facility and had them replaced with fakes. We went through a lot of trouble to make this trap, so I want you to appreciate its finesse."

Arkus turned towards Beta Five and asked, "What about you?"

Beta-Five felt the gaze of the two directors and Arkus weighing on him. He looked away and said, "I have nothing to say to you." A tear dripped out of his eye, and he dabbed it away in the same motion he used to take the tablet out of his pocket.

"Power's out, remember?" the Alpha Director said.

Beta-Five looked down at the tablet's blank screen, said "Oh," and returned it.

Arkus' scowl abated slightly as he said, "I see."

"Good! I'm glad you see. Now, I suppose we should let you watch what we're going to do to Palsitore."

Arkus smiled. "Before you do, I think you're forgetting something."

"Oh?" Sheldon asked. "And what would that be?"

"These walls… weren't they the same ones that Delta used?"

"Indeed. They held up to everything you put them through."

As he said this, Beta-Five remembered video footage from the Delta Incident, and how the Darkrai tore through the metal. Then he remembered the armlet around Arkus' arm. As Arkus lifted his arm towards the door, Beta-Five lunged for the button. Director Lammers, however, was a second faster, and pressed the button before Beta-Five could reach it. The Alpha Ball sprang to life and sucked up Arkus in a beam of red light before he could react.

"Phew, that was close," Director Lammers said, leaning back in his chair. "That's the last time I'm ever gloating."

"You said it," Director Sheldon said. "That had me scared stiff for a moment."

"I suppose we shouldn't wait on the final act, then."

"You're right, we shouldn't. Let's go."

Beta-Five stood and turned towards the door. "I… I think I'll return to my room, with your permission, of course."

"What are you talking about?" Director Sheldon asked. "It's all thanks to you we're able to do this. You should at least watch."

For a fraction of a second, Beta-Five thought he said "It's your fault we're going to do this, you should watch," but he shook the thought from his mind and followed them. The other half of the Alpha Project resided deep within the Alpha Laboratories, sealed off from the world with a two inch fortress of Delta alloy. As they walked inside, a hole opened up in the ceiling, and an enormous metal tower rose to the surface, with cables unfurling around it like a monolithic carnival swing. Lights flickered up its length, and its surface thrummed with a mechanical heart-beat. At the base, embedded in an enormous diamond, was the vial of blood.

"Everything is ready, Directors," one research agent called as he typed code into one of the machine's four terminals.

"Excellent!" Director Sheldon said, clapping his hands. "Beta-Five, in recognition of your contribution to humanity, on behalf of all of Sinex, I would like to give you the honor of reclaiming the world for mankind."

Beta-Five's heart froze. "Wait, me? B-but it's your project, Director…"

"It was our project. You were the one with the most dangerous and important job, and you performed flawlessly."

"But you're the Director. You should be the one."

Director Lammers stepped forward and said, "How about the two of you, then? Together."

"You mean the three of us." Director Sheldon said. "It was your plan, after all."

The Beta Director gave a small smile. "I suppose you're right. Let's do it then."

Director Sheldon was first to place his hand on the button. Beta-Five hesitated, and sweat dripped down his neck as he stared at the vial.

"Are you going, Beta-Five?" Director Lammers asked.

"Sorry. I was… lost in thought for a moment."

Beta-Five placed his hand on top of Sheldon's. His hand felt hot to the touch.

"Wow, your hand's cold," he said.

"Sorry sir."

Director Lammers placed his hand on top, a firm pressure that made Beta-Five feel trapped between the two directors. Sweat formed on his palm, and he had to strangle the urge to yank his hand out from between them.

"On the count of three, then," Director Lammers said.

As the countdown began, Beta-Five's mind went blank. His overwhelming desire to run was stalled by an equally overpowering fear of the directors. When the count hit three, the slight increase in pressure from the Beta Director's hand startled him made him press down hard.

"Hey, no need to get too excited!" the Alpha Director shouted over the hum of the tower.

Beta-Five shouted back "Sorry sir!", but the tower drowned him out in a mighty _thrum_ that rocked the room. A dark mist rose along the length of the tower and balled up at its apex, then a surge of power rose up the cables, making them dance and crack in the air from the magnetic force rippling through them. The nebulous dark sphere gathered at the top broke apart into an infinite number of tiny threads and were blasted across the world.

Trapped between the two directors, Beta-Five could only watch from afar as a whole race was stripped of its humanity.

Chapter Twenty: The Wish

For a whole week, he could hardly sleep, and each time he drifted off, his eyes snapped open, and he searched the room for Arkus. A cold, pervasive darkness surrounded him in his bed, and he kept his tablet on through the night to chase it to the corners of the room. But the darkness was always there, always creeping towards him, the darkness of the tower he had unleashed upon the world and sought him out for revenge. His paranoia had him cowering under the sheets, staring into the empty LED light of his tablet.

During that week, all Sinex members scrambled to restore the data backed in Director Lammers' cerebral hard drive and repair all the machinery damaged by the EMP they created. Beta-Five oversaw the restoration of the Quantum Scanning Microscopes. Though the integrated circuits had to be replaced, his team managed to salvage most of the larger circuit boards and all of the smaller components. He threw himself into the work, casting aside the shadows in his mind to fixate upon transistors and capacitors. Within the week, the Sinex Phoenix had risen from the gutted, damaged wreck of its labs.

On the eighth morning, the directors arranged for a meeting between all the research agents, to discuss the Order's future. Beta-Five received the message along with the low-battery alert of his tablet as he rolled out of bed. Out of habit, Beta-Five started pinning in a request for a pizza pocket, and froze when he saw its image on the screen. His fingers clumsily cancelled the request and brought out a granola bar instead. He took a bite and found, to his sadness, it was raisin.

The cafeteria had been rearranged so it could seat the dozens of research agents. The buffet tables were set against the wall to make room for a large metal podium, with the four directors standing behind it.

Sheldon cleared his throat and brought the microphone closer to his lips. "Our thanks go to you, research agents! Thanks to your tireless efforts, we are now ready to begin the next phase of our reclamation of the world!"

At those words, the room erupted in applause. Shocked into following along, Beta-Five lethargically slapped his hands together. Once the applause died down, Sheldon cleared his throat and continued his speech.

"We have many years of work ahead of us before we can reclaim what is ours. However, the worst is behind us! Arkus is captured, and all the other pokemon can no longer resist us. All that remains is to tame them and rebuild our lost cities. As such, I am proud to announce my plan, to mass-produce the Alpha Ball and use them as storage devices for all the pokemon of this world. This way, we no longer need to fear them! This way, we can use them to our advantage! Their strength will become our strength, and their strength will rebuild this world!"

Sheldon backed away and allowed the thunderous tide of applause to wash over the room. Swept in the current, Beta-Five clapped progressively louder until he was the only one left clapping. He bowed his head and waited for the Alpha Director to speak.

"Now, in recognition of our achievement, I hereby proclaim that on this day, we shall take real names, as we once had in the society we lost. As a mutual decision among us directors, we have decided that Beta-Five, for his bravery and resourcefulness during the joint project, shall claim the first name. Beta-Five, please come up here."

His body refused to move, but Alpha Fourteen heaved him onto his feet and shoved him forward. Out of reflex, his body walked up to the podium and turned to face the audience.

"I understand this is sudden," Director Lammers said, "but if you have a name you desire, I think it appropriate to give it the pomp and circumstance it deserves. You can, of course, choose to decide later."

Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his thoughts flooded with anxiety and dread as he saw all the faces staring at him. Behind each Agent he saw the shadow, waiting to swallow him up. Even without turning, he felt the shadow behind him, leaning from the podium, grazing him on the shoulder and running its fingernails along the back of his neck. Out of the hurricane of anxiety came a single idea, the eye of the storm, which forced its way onto his tongue and bade him to give it utterance.

"Ashi Taka," he named himself. His voice, amplified by the microphone placed before him, made the name echo across the hall. The name carried with it a force that made the shadows around him cower in fear.

"Ashi Taka, is it?" Director Sheldon asked. "Very well then. Let us all applaud Doctor Taka for bringing us into the restoration of humanity!"

This time, the applause rushed over him without touching him. Instead, he turned inward, struggling to understand what made him utter that name. And yet, no matter how many reasons he gave himself it would only give him grief, he couldn't make himself regret it.

"Furthermore," the Zeta Director continued, making the applause end with his voice, "We have decided to grant you the request of your choice. Name it, and should it be within our power, it will be yours. Even Director-ship over your own branch."

The proposition left the room stunned, but no research agent within the room was nearly as shocked as Doctor Taka. The cafeteria hall faded to a dull, flat gray without any dimension, an empty space where only thought existed. And within this existential bubble, one question loomed over him.

 _What is my wish?_

 _I could be a director. I could research whatever I wanted. I would have equal standing with all the other directors and enact whatever policy I see fit. I could help the pokemon with this power._

 _No, stop. What is my wish?_

 _I could have µ 2.0 freed and —_

 _Stop it! What is my wish?_

 _I could announce a proposal to marry Alpha-Fourteen. Yes, marriage is acceptable now. What would that be like? Do I want to have a relationship with her? She is nice, but how would I feel about it? Do I feel anything for her? Love is a chemical reaction, right? Just something the body goes through like any other biological function. Is that happening to me?_

 _What is my wish?_

 _Maybe I ask the wrong question. Why do I feel the way I do? Why do I have so much guilt? Why can't I sleep? Why did I pick this name?_

Out of the gray void, Arkus' face emerges and stares into his heart. He repeats the story, of a warrior fighting against his own kind to protect the world he loves. He drinks a bottle of root beer and eats a hot pocket. Then, with a flash of red light, he vanishes, leaving only crumbs and an empty bottle behind.

 _What is my wish?_

 _Have Arkus freed? No! They would never agree. I would be seen as a lunatic and lose my position._

 _Become a director? Then I could get direct access to the Alpha Ball. But eyes would be on me. They would be watching me._

 _Then what? What is my wish? What am I going to do? Why do I feel all this guilt?_

 _It's because I care. I can't help it, no matter how hard I try. Resist it, and I'll never be able to sleep. I have to do something, but what?_

 _What is my wish?_

 _I need to study the Alpha Ball. I need to find a weakness. I need to free him and atone for my – no, our mistake._

 _What is my wish?_

 _Become a part of the Alpha Project? They will want to perfect the Alpha Ball's design and use it on the other pokemon. Then I can study it without being watched, without having the other duties a director would have._

 _What is my wish?_

 _Can I really do this? If I was caught, I would be killed. No one would help me. I would be alone, alone for the rest of my life._

 _But I would be alone anyways._

The gray void disappeared, and the cafeteria returned to Doctor Taka's vision. He turned towards the directors and said, "I would like to be transferred to the Alpha Project."

The Alpha Director coughed into his elbow and then said, "I'm flattered, truly, but may I ask why?"

"Your research is going to be highly relevant in the years to come, and I want to be a part of that."

Director Sheldon rubbed his head and said, "Well, this isn't exactly bio-engineering, Beta – I mean, Doctor Taka."

Director Lammers adjusted his microphone and said, "He'll be fine. He's the best I have at handling technical instruments, and he also knows quite a bit of quantum theory."

"But – but Director Lammers! You're going to give up your best agent just like that?"

Director Lammers shrugged and looked at Ashi. "If that's what he wants, then I won't stop him. But he'll be welcomed back anytime he wishes to return."

"Are you really sure about this?"

"A fresh perspective will do your work wonders, I imagine." Director Lammers waved his long, black hair out of his eyes and said, "Although, I would appreciate a new technical assistant in return."

Director Sheldon furrowed his brow and buried his face into his tablet. Then he said, "It's a deal. Beta- er, I mean Doctor Taka, please see me in the conference room later."

By the end of the meeting, all the research agents received their names. Ashi Taka had expected a rebirth; however, as he listened to each of them declare their new names to the new world, he felt disgusted. Each name had all the solidity of fog. They served only to obscure the truth. Nothing changed. Each one was still a research agent, bound to Sinex with invisible chains harder than the Delta alloy. Each one, beneath the glamour of Michael and Brandon and Sashimoto, was still a Greek letter and a number.

As Ashi brooded over the names, he realized exactly how alone he was. And yet, despite his isolation, the shadows remained out of sight. He walked in the light towards the conference room, he sat in the light as he received a new tablet, key-card, and lab coat, and he basked in the light as he stared at the ceiling and took slow, deep breaths, savoring each taste of air that didn't reek of his own adrenaline.

His adrenaline, however, was far from finished with his nerves. As he stared at the ceiling, he caught sight of the security camera in the corner and realized one enormous oversight he had made.

Before he could think it over, he had sprinted to the Beta Laboratories. However, his feet froze in front of the door long enough for him to plan his trip to the security room. He walked in, claiming to give the lab one last farewell before leaving it forever, meandered through the testing rooms, exchanged small-talk with the researchers, and ducked into the security room the moment he was alone. He kept the lights off as he sat at the computer terminal and opened up all the security footage. However, everything from the last few months had vanished.

"All the security footage was lost in the EMP," a voice said behind him. Ashi turned around and saw the Beta Director standing in the shadows, his glasses reflecting the light coming in from underneath the door.

"Oh, um, Director, there was something I wanted to check before I left, and—"

"Spare me, Doctor Taka. I am well aware of what you are planning. I knew you would come here eventually, so I used the tracking chip in your keycard to find out when you would arrive."

Ashi couldn't speak. His throat had seized up, and cold sweat trickled down his back. His arms would have shaken had he not been gripping the computer table so tightly. His finger joints made tiny popping sounds under the pressure.

"I always knew this would happen, Doctor Taka." Director Lammers took off his glasses and cleaned them on his lab coat. "Ever since the µ Project started, I knew you had feelings of guilt. And then you spared µ 2.0 when I ordered its execution, exactly as I expected. What, you thought I wouldn't notice? Although, I have to admit it was clever of you how you hid it from your own memory. That was a nice touch."

Doctor Taka forced his mouth open and asked, "What now?"

The Director gave him a gentle smile. "Nothing. I won't do anything."

"Wait, what? But…"

"I also struggled with guilt. Still do." Director Lammers walked over to the console and brought up a file labeled Project λ.

"So there was a Project Lambda. What happened to the files?"

"I had them buried. I couldn't stomach the research that went into it."

Doctor Taka opened the files. His blood froze as he read through the first subject's records. The abstract went into vivid detail about the physiological transformations brought about by inserting pokemon DNA into a living human.

"Holy shit. You didn't."

"The previous director was convinced that to defeat monsters, we had to become monsters. That's his reasoning for this sick experiment. And I was the one caring for them."

The director swiped through the files and brought out Subject λ-20, a zoroark-human hybrid.

"This is the one that broke me. Unlike the others, this one was a child when the gene therapy started. He was a bright kid, too. The director thought a younger mind and body would cope better with the treatments. And he was right. λ-20 lived for another ten years. I was ordered not to get attached. Numerous times. But after spending ten years caring for this child, watching him grow up, holding his head in my lap when the headaches became too much for him to bear, how could I not get attached?"

Doctor Taka read through λ-20's file, but the results section was entirely blank. "What happened?" he asked.

"All hell broke loose." The director closed up the files and turned the monitor off. "What I'm about to tell you never leaves this room, understood? Ever."

Ashi nodded, and the director cleared his throat.

"What happened that day, twenty years ago, was a massacre I've carefully buried. Director Hester, myself, and five of Beta's best agents were running a brain-scan on λ-20 when he went insane and killed everyone else in the room. And it wasn't pretty… spines ripped out of their backs, heads blown apart from the inside… and… and… he was grinning…"

Director Lammers sat down and placed a hand against his head. "Sorry. It's difficult, even now. Anyways, when he walked over to me, I thought he was going to kill me, but… I think he recognized me. He had this look of terror on his face, and then he… he killed himself. His whole body exploded and I… I was soaked in his blood. Everything was."

The Director stood up and walked up to Doctor Taka. "Again, none of this leaves the room. Understood?"

"Yes."

"Alright then." Director Lammers took a deep breath and said, "Afterwards, I took Director Hester's tablet. I was fortunate that it was still on and logged in, and so, right there, I made up my mind. I tampered with the Director's files, changing the line of succession so I would become the new Director. Once I was sworn in, I erased all evidence of what I did in that room. And from that day forward, I made sure that the Beta Laboratories never did another human experiment of that nature."

"And what about pokemon? What about Project µ?"

"I only cared about people. That's why. But you care about them too, I can tell. That's why you're going to Section Alpha, tomake sure they treat the captured pokemon humanely, isn't it?"

For a moment, Doctor Taka wondered why the director was willing to help him release Arkus. Then he realized that the director didn't know his plans. He felt himself chill over as he prepared himself to lie to his Director.

"Yes, exactly," he said, "If I'm on the development team for the Alpha Project, then I can create a better, more pokemon-friendly design, so they don't suffer."

As the director walked towards the door, he handed Doctor Taka a key-card. "I left µ2.0 alive, by the way. This card can log you into the system under my account, if you ever need it. Take care, Ashi Taka, and make sure you accomplish your goal. It's the only way to keep the nightmares away."

Doctor Taka tucked the card into his pocket and said, "I won't stop until I succeed."


	11. Chapters 21-22

Chapter 21: Making it Better

Chihiro stared out of her bedroom window, watching feral pokemon roam the streets and pick through garbage cans for moldy berries and discarded hamburger wrappers. Her mother curled up on a sofa torn to fluffy shreds by her claws. The living room reeked of urine. Chihiro's mother knocked over a vase, and Chihiro never bothered to clean it up, only brushing shards out of the way each time she went for the leash. The cabinets were held shut with strips of cloth knotted together, and scratch marks coated each cabinet door that guarded food. The fridge was left open, empty and powerless, its shelves thrown askew by hungry hands.

Chihiro walked into the kitchen, and her mother scrambled for the door, scratching at it with her long, ragged claws.

"No!" Chihiro barked. Her mother whimpered and slunk into a corner. Chihiro looked inside the cabinets and shook each box.

"Dad will fix this soon," Chihiro told herself. "He'll come back. I just have to wait a bit longer. Just a bit longer."

She grabbed a makeshift leash, made of rolled-up curtains tied into rugged knots, and wrapped the loop around her mother's neck. She frowned as her mother bounced at the end of her leash. As they went down the stairs, Chihiro had to yank back the leash to keep herself from tripping, causing her mother to choke.

The feral pokemon wandering the streets kept their distance as Chihiro stepped around the filth on the sidewalks. She made her way to an abandoned convenience store, its windows shattered and its shelves overturned. Boxes and cans littered the floor, most opened and emptied of their contents. After tying her mother to a street lamp, Chihiro lifted shelves and sifted through boxes with her powers, examining each unbroken box she happened upon. Anything edible went into a battered shopping cart missing a back wheel, and once it was full of water bottles, canned meat and vegetables, boxes of pasta, and bags of rice, she pushed it through the streets. The feral pokemon approached her, but none dared touch her cart.

When she got back to the apartment, she dumped a box of pasta into a pot, poured a bottle of water into it, and set it on the stove. With a wave of her hand, the water started to boil. She jumped away from the pot when bubbles splashed out its top, reminding her of the early attempts months ago that resulted in steam explosions. She gave a wry chuckle and kept stirring.

Chihiro poured out two bowls of limp, soggy pasta and dumped the contents of a canned bork over them. She reached into a drawer and looked at the dwindling collection of forks and spoons. She grabbed two forks and then hesitated, her hand halfway to the bowls. She set one fork back and placed the other into her bowl of pasta. She took a bite while staring at the other bowl, then she took another fork out, placed it in the other bowl, and handed it to her mother. It flung the fork out of the bowl and buried its face into the pasta, scarfing down the meal in seconds and licking the edges for every hint of grease. Chihiro picked up the fork and threw it into the sink.

Chihiro tried going to bed, but an unfamiliar sound kept her awake. The pokemon in the streets yelped in panic as a series of high pitched hissing sounds punctuated by metallic dings echoed between the city's dilapidated walls. She peered outside and saw the streets swarming with black-clad humans throwing red and white spheres at any pokemon they came across. Each sphere cracked open, emitting a beam of red light that hissed as it punctured the air and snared its target, yanking it inside before the ball closed up again.

Chihiro gathered her energy and backed up to jump out the window, but then she saw an aggron batting aside the spheres and charging the humans. They threw more spheres, but this time, pokemon emerged from them and clambered onto the aggron, beating it and forcing it to the ground for the humans to capture.

Footsteps approaching the apartment door startled her. Without stopping to think, she leapt from the window and hopped from rooftop to rooftop, putting the sounds of mass pokemon capture far behind her. She didn't stop until the silence of an autumn forest settled over her like ashes. Tears stung her eyes, and her legs shook too much to hold herself up. She fell onto her tail and looked up at the fading orange canopy.

Then she remembered her mother. In a panic, she started towards the city, but she stopped herself. This time, she sank to her knees and wept into the soggy leaves beneath her.

Chihiro stayed there until the rumbling of her stomach made her think of food. She almost teleported back to the city but realized that the humans might still be there. Instead, she returned to the underground caverns. The kitchens, though dusty, was in perfect order wehn she found it. Chihiro first cleared the dust and dirt with a flick of her hands, then she made herself croquettes, this time using her aura to sap the excess oil from the pastry. She bit into one once it cooled, savoring the meaty grease that ran over her tongue. It still didn't taste as good as her mother's used to be.

After dinner, Chihiro turned on the TV, but she didn't put in any of the Blu-Rays scattered on the floor. She settled into the sofa and closed her eyes, feeling the cushions curl around her body. She felt as though she could lie there, wrapped in warmth, and never move again.

Tears trickled down her cheeks, but she couldn't muster the energy to wipe them away. "Dad, why didn't you do anything? You're so great and powerful, you could've stopped all of this. So why?" Chihiro gritted her teeth, and Aura radiated from her body, raising everything in the room and making the television wail with the sobs she was holding back. Then she looked around, looked at all the power she held, and set everything down.

"That's right. I'm powerful too. I can fix this. I'll fix all of it, then dad'll come back and tell me how good a job I did. I'll use my Aura like he taught me and fix all of this. Yes, that's right."

Chihiro kept muttering to herself as she stepped outside and searched for a pokemon. She sensed a zangoose nearby, grabbed it with her Aura, and pulled it into the sanctuary. The zangoose tore at the bedsheets as she tied it to the posts.

"Just stop struggling, okay? I'll make this all better again."

She reached with her power into the zangoose's head and found a tangled web of dark energy, tiny strands tangled in infinitely complex loops, cutting off neural activity to the frontal cortex. To her eyes, the flesh towards the front of the brain appeared lifeless while the inner core hummed with energy. She reached in with a thin trickle of Aura, weaving around neurons and brushing against a dark restraint choking an axon. Then, with a swift flick of her power, she sliced the restraint.

The entire web of darkness ignited, severing neurons across the brain and sending high-voltage pulses across the spongy tissue. Chihiro poured all her energy into healing the zangoose, but she could neither keep its heart breathing, nor its lungs breathing, nor its brain intact. Pressure built up from a rush of blood leaking into the zangoose's damaged brain, until it forced its way out the eye sockets. Tears of blood gushed from the zangoose's eyes, and a frenzy of neural signals jerked its limbs around like a tangled puppet.

Chihiro toiled for hours, using her powers to knit sinew and patch broken blood vessels, but she couldn't win the race against decay. Yet, she kept pouring her soul into resurrecting the corpse she had made until she passed out from exhaustion.

When she woke up again, it was morning. The bloated zangoose corpse filled the air with the sulfurous scent of decay. She raised her hand towards it, but her vision swam and she collapsed onto the floor.

Chihiro tried to cry. She squeezed her eyes shut until she thought they would pop out of her head, but no tears came out. She pounded her fists against the floor until she left dents, but she felt no pain. Her heart went numb, and she felt as though it would stop beating then.

She crouched on the floor for hours, unwilling to move even though the smell of the room made her gag on her own spit. Then, out of the empty, thoughtless void in her mind came a single thought.

 _It's better off now._

That lone thought started a psychological collapse of dominos. Chihiro muttered the logic into the floor as she struggled to get up.

"That's right. If I don't do anything, they'll all stay like that. So maybe a few will die. They'll all thank me afterwards. Mom… and dad… I'll make everything better again. It'll just take a few more tries. Practice… a few more times…"

Chihiro rose to her feet and staggered into the kitchen. She rummaged around the pantry and ate berries straight from a can until her stomach felt ready to burst. Then she walked into the wild and took a long, deep breath of the clean air. She sent out a faint pulse of aura and listened to the echoes bouncing back at her. The woods around her teemed with all the pokemon that escaped the capture spree in Palsitore.

"Alright. Which one should I try to fix next?"

Chapter 22: Under Night's Cloak

Doctor Taka sat in front of Director Sheldon. Six stacks of documents were splayed out in front of him, each detailing a rough schematic of a device the Sector was working on.

"Alright, Doctor Taka. Which one would you like to try next?"

"You're letting me decide? Shouldn't you give the opportunity to a senior member?"

"You're the one that thought of weakening the pokeball's alloy to make it mass-producible, and you're the one that thought of using a variable lens to focus the teleporter beam. Honestly, how did you figure that all out in three months?"

Doctor Taka looked down and shrugged. "I was reading your research results, so I already had some ideas."

Director Sheldon stood up, walked around his desk, and placed his hand on Doctor Taka's shoulder. "I'm really glad you transferred here. Heck, I wish you were with us sooner. Imagine how much earlier the Alpha Ball would've been ready for use. We might've even gotten the pup too!"

"The pup?"

"Oh right, I hadn't told you yet. I'll say more in the meeting later. So, what'll it be?"

The Doctor picked up each of the documents, and then shoved each one away from him.

"Actually, I would like to continue working on the pokeball project."

"Really? What more is there to do?"

"The pokeballs aren't suited for catching large pokemon."

"Don't you think you're selling yourself short? I think you'd do an amazing job working on the Aura Energy Converter – that could generate a theoretically limitless supply of energy!"

"I'm not much of a physicist, I'm afraid. Alpha-Fourt – er, I mean Nora would be much better suited to that position."

Director Sheldon rubbed the top of his head and said, "Well, if you're sure, then I'll give you the whole department. You're in charge of the operations now."

"Wait, what?"

"I'll let all the researchers in the department know about the change in leadership. They'll all report to you from now on." The Director smiled and said, "Think about it as preparation for being Director one day."

Doctor Taka stood and bowed. "Yes sir, thank you sir."

"Alright, that's everything. Get yourself something to eat before the meeting."

Doctor Taka returned to his new room in the Alpha sector and tapped a request for a pizza pocket and a Sprecher's. He stared at the pizza pocket, taking a deep breath of the cheesy aroma that wafted from it, before eating it in three large, methodical bites. Then he popped the cap off the root beer and let the cloudy, honey-laden vapor drift across the face before chugging the entire bottle. He threw away the bottle but tucked the cap into a drawer with ninety others like it.

After he wiped away the crumbs around his mouth, the Doctor followed the other Alpha Agents to the cafeteria. A large projector was set up on the ceiling, flashing the red and white symbol of the pokeball onto a screen. Director Sheldon stood in front of the screen, with his forehead catching the reflection of the pokeball's light.

"I thank you all for coming tonight," he said. "It is my honor to present the results of the combined Pokeball Initiative. First off, our new home has been secured! Construction of the new Palsitore City will begin immediately, and once it is complete, humanity will once again return to the surface!"

This shout was met with a resounding applause from the audience. With a wave of Sheldon's hand, the hall fell silent.

"However, I also bear some disturbing news. We were unable to locate the child of Arkus. Furthermore, we found signs of primitive intelligence in the apartment she once resided."

The projector flickered, and images of Chihiro's apartment appeared on the screen.

"As you can see, the apartment is in a state of complete disrepair. A zoroark was living in it, clearly lacking in intelligence from our Agents' reports, but it did manage to escape. More troubling, however, is this."

The image zoomed in on the pieces of cloth tied around the cabinets, and an open cabinet with boxes of food sloppily stuffed inside.

"The storing of food in this manner suggests that whatever lived here had some degree of intelligence. Judging by the state of the apartment, it seems that Arkus' child had lost most of its intelligence… but not all. If left alone, the lucario could destroy what we intend to rebuild. Therefore, I propose we establish a team comprised of Agents from every Sector whose sole purpose is tracking it down. And until we find it, we must exercise caution when leaving the facility. No one leaves without at least a team of four or without notifying a Director. Understood? Good. You're all dismissed."

As the room emptied, Director Sheldon waved Doctor Taka over to the podium. Sheldon leaned over and said, "I should've asked you in the office, but do you have any ideas where Arkus' child would be?"

"No sir, I don't."

"And how intelligent do you think it is?"

"Hmm… storing food is a very primitive instinct, and it looks like they were there recently. If it was more intelligent, it would have left the city earlier to find somewhere safer."

Director Sheldon let out a sigh and smiled. "Phew! Imagine if it was still intelligent! All the damage it could do… well, have a good night Doctor Taka. Let me know if you think of anything."

Doctor Taka nodded and returned to his room. He brought up the Palsitore Reclamation reports on his computer and sifted through the picture files. When he reached Arkus' apartment, he stopped and examined each photograph one at a time. Urine stains and torn curtains made him despair of finding Arkus' child intelligent but then, in the corner of one photograph, he saw a fork sitting in the sink. A bit of pasta clung to one of the tines. He stared at the fork for ten minutes, analyzing every possible reason for the fork's presence, but only one theory withstood the tests of his logic. Arkus' child still had their intelligence.

He nearly let out a cheer and cracked out a Sprecher's. Halfway through the bottle, though, he set it down and grabbed at his hair.

"How am I even going to get her before Sinex does?" he muttered. "I don't even know where to start looking, and I can't even leave the facility." Doctor Taka glanced at the door to make sure it was closed, and even looked under it to make sure no one was standing outside. Then he returned to his desk. He opened up a drawing tool on his computer and started listing out all his options. But no matter who he thought of turning to – Alpha Fourteen, Director Lammers, anyone – all he foresaw was betrayal. But then he thought of the one living creature that would help him.

He placed Mewtwo's name at the center of his drawing tool and drew several spokes outward. At each spoke he placed one of his options – asking for Director Lammers' help seemed promising until he tried justifying sending Mewtwo out of the lab. One by one, he debated his options until only one choice remained. It seemed wildly, stupidly crazy, but there was no alternative.

Doctor Taka waited until after dark. From his computer, he disabled the cameras leading out of Section Alpha and swapped in some old footage. Then he peeled off a layer of paint in his desk drawer and took out the card Director Lammers gave him along with the two cloaking devices he took from storage. He snuck through the dark, silent hallways, feeling his way along the walls. He touched a panel by mistake and jerked away from the opening door. Someone walked out of the room and muttered "stupid door" before returning to bed.

From there, Doctor Taka made his way through the Beta Laboratories and into the storage facility. Rows of new samples had already accumulated from the Pokeball Initiative, and the cryochamber he sought was nestled between two others in a back corner. He glanced behind himself before tapping the open button on the machine. Holes popped open on the edges of the device, releasing a hiss of cold, cloudy vapor. Then the door popped open, and a manacled Mewtwo stumbled out of the machine, its eyes glazed over. Doctor Taka pressed the card against the manacles, and they popped open.

"S-s-so cold," Mewtwo said.

"Just relax, it'll wear off in a few minutes."

Mewtwo looked up at him. "B-b-beta Five?"

"Don't speak, just wait a moment. Deep breaths."

After a few minutes, Mewtwo stopped shivering. Doctor Taka put a hand on its shoulder and asked, "Better?"

"Are we going to do tests again?"

"Put this on and don't let go of my hand," the Doctor said, handing Mewtwo the other cloaking device. "Don't make any sounds, and don't make any fast movements either or the cameras will catch us."

"Cameras?"

"I'll explain later. Let's go."

Doctor Taka guided Mewtwo back to the Section Alpha, holding its hand through the long, dark corridors. His grip slipped once, but he was able to grab Mewtwo's hand before it started panicking. Once they returned to his room, Doctor Taka explained everything – Arkus, deleting all the lab data, saving Mewtwo, subduing all the pokemon, and the one hope of saving. Mewtwo's repeated questions and Doctor Taka's halting, erratic storytelling kept them awake until dawn.

"So, will you help me?" Doctor Taka asked.

"You said that the others would kill me, right? What choice do I have?"

"Well, you could leave. I could help you get out of here."

"And what's out there? I have nowhere else to go."

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "I'm – I'm sorry."

Mewtwo placed its hand on his shoulder. "Don't be. Even if I had a place to go, I'd still help you. You're the nicest person I know." It smiled and said, "I'd be your Sam, right Mister Frodo?"

Doctor Taka paused a second to process the reference, then he said, "I suppose so. Ready to go to Mount Doom?"

"Ready."


	12. Chapters 23-24

Chapter 23: Guilt

The human skeleton that had rested in bed within the bedroom of the underground sanctuary for a thousand years was ground to dust against the far wall. In its place sat a blaziken, its arms tied to the bedposts by damp towels. A drip from the ceiling kept the towels damp each time the blaziken tried burning its way through them.

The other beds were all filled with different pokemon, some yanking on their restraints and others limp and lifeless. A toxicroak tried spitting acid onto the bedsheets, but it could only manage a feeble trickle that ulcerated the orange pocket on its chin.

Chihiro stood at the center of it all, observing each of her test subjects. Her face had turned gaunt and bony from years of skipping meals. Her eyes sank into their sockets and glittered like sapphires stuck in a sticky black mire. Her hair had turned a pale blue-grey from dust, and her clothes had been patched over so many times its original color had been lost beneath each layer of cloth she salvaged from the shelter's stores.

She opened her journal and pored through it. Each page was crammed full of notes on cranial physiology and studies on her own powers. Her early notes had general, vague data, but the later portions had sections divided into different regions of the brain. Her studies had even ventured beyond restoring brain function – she delved into manipulating the brain, generating sensations and emotions at her will. Another section, far slimmer in size, recorded the results of her attempt to have a child. At the very end was a log of all the pokemon she had used and the results of her experiments.

Chihiro pointed at the blaziken's bed, and the restraints came undone. Then she placed her hand on the blaziken's forehead. Aura trickled into the blaziken's brain, unsealing a slice of the frontal cortex and rewiring the neurons inside.

"You will obey my commands."

The blaziken nodded.

"Throw out the corpses, then get me more subjects."

The blaziken grunted and turned towards the beds. It poked each pokemon in them, and it hefted each one that didn't stir over its shoulder. Its legs shook as it carried a dozen corpses across the room, and a few hit the floor as it tried squeezing through the door. Chihiro followed the blaziken out and watched it dump the bodies into a hole outside the shelter. She covered the hole and replaced all the foliage, making the leftovers of her experiments disappear without a trace.

Then the blaziken grabbed a tree branch and walked off into the woods. Chihiro listened as each new subject gave a frightened yelp before it was silenced with a smack of the club. Minutes later, the blaziken returned with a dozen unconscious pokemon slung over its shoulder. Blood trickled out of its nose, and it squawked incoherent gibberish before it collapsed to the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth as its brain turned to slime.

"Thirty minutes," Chihiro said. "Signs of progress." She inspected the pile and moved each pokemon to a bed. At the bottom, she found a zoroark. Blood flowed from a scrape on its nose, and patches of its fur were torn off.

"Kind of looks like…" she cut the thought off and moved the zoroark to a bed, tying the restraints tight and infusing them with Aura. She turned away, but she couldn't shake the feeling of nostalgia she had for the zoroark.

"No, not possible. The humans would've gotten her."

Chihiro began tinkering with the brain of a wigglytuff, but as she worked, she couldn't stop thinking about the zoroark. Her concentration slipped for a moment, and her Aura made a wrong turn through the wigglytuff's brain stem, severing the spinal cord. Chihiro frowned and tossed the wigglytuff corpse out the door. Then she approached the zoroark and placed her hand over its head.

"Once I see it's not her, then I'll be able to get back to work."

Her Aura wriggled through the zoroark's lifeless limbic system, reactivating neurons one by one and analyzing the connections. The Aura then transmitted the stimuli triggered to her own senses, and she saw memories unfolding within the zoroark's mind. Chihiro saw nothing that she recognized, and she started laughing at herself. But then, just as she was about to sever the connection, she hit more recent memories – the apartment, her father, making croquettes, and herself, so tiny and fragile in the zoroark's arms.

Chihiro didn't feel herself crying until she cut off the connection. She wiped her eyes and looked around the room, listened to the moans of pokemon waking up with head injuries, smelled the panic and decay in the air, and tasted her own tears mingled with dust.

Chihiro sank to the floor and pressed her forehead against the tile. She tried closing her ears, but she could still hear the cries around her.

"What have I done?" she whispered. Then she tore through her journal, grimacing as she passed over the section documenting how she kicked out her own child for its ignorance, and reached the log at the end. She counted through and wept at the number.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," she told herself. "Why? Why did I do all this?"

Her mother yanked at the restraints. Chihiro stood up and removed them, but held the zoroark in the grip of her Aura.

"Yes. I did all this to fix everyone. And I'll fix you right now."

Chihiro carried her mother down to the crystalline cavern and placed her on the broken pedestal at the room's heart. Then she touched a crystal on the floor.

"Give me your power," she said. The crystals did nothing. Chihiro waited a moment, then she smacked the crystal and shouted "Give it to me!"

The crystal cracked and fell apart into dust. Aura gushed from the broken crystal and into her arm. The new power surged through her, enhancing her senses. She could see every ray of light reflected off of the crystals and feel every faint vibration of the wind.

Chihiro loosed a pulse of Aura that shook the whole room, shattering every crystal on the ceiling. Fine white powder fell in a glittering wave. A sheet of Aura kept the powder off of Chihiro and her mother, depositing it into the pond. The pond's water, once clear and clean enough to drink, turned gray and murky from all the dust that fell into it.

A whirlwind of power, locked away for millennia in the crystals, surged into Chihiro. It burned behind her eyes, granting her visions of the world miles away from her. She felt every strand of swaying grass, every trickle of water that seeped through the trees, and every heartbeat that shuddered to a stop as the echoes of Aura emanating from the chamber tore flesh apart.

"Ready mom? I'm going to bring you back."

Chihiro methodically wound her way through her mother's brain, using years of experience to map the tangle of dark threads that sealed her mind. Once she found its breaking point, she snipped the threads around it one at a time, propping the exposed regions of the brain closed before the influx of neural signals could cause a stroke. She worked her way from the center of the frontal cortex to the extremities, and then wound her way through the limbic system, releasing memories one at a time. Once every shred of darkness disappeared, Chihiro loosened the restraints she had placed on her mother's mind, letting a trickle of activity to return to the starved parts of her brain.

"Chi… hiro? Is that… you?" Alicia's voice was hoarse, and each word came after long pauses.

Tears trickled down Chihiro's face as she smiled. "Shh, mom, you're okay now, I brought you back."

"My… my head… hurts."

"I'll make it better," Chihiro said. She ran her hand over the gash on her mother's head and healed the wound. "See? Better."

"Feels… worse… am I dying?"

"No, mom, you're perfectly fine, trust me! Just – just stay with me, alright?"

Chihiro looked through her mother's brain. Everywhere her Aura had touched the neurons, tiny abrasions grew in the cell wall, making fluid leak from them in microscopic droplets. As she tried sealing them all, the cracks in her mother's brain only grew bigger. As cells started to die in the frontal cortex, more cells within the center of the brain started to malfunction. Her mother's breathing raced, and her heartbeat came in arrhythmic patters. Alicia tried to say something, but her brain stopped before the words left her lips.

Chihiro kept trying to save her, but the more Aura she poured into the lifeless body of her mother, the more gruesome and horrific the body became. Blood bubbled out of her mouth and nose, and fur fell off in fluffy black clumps. Flesh peeled away from the bones of her fingers, and holes opened up in her chest and face, revealing rotting muscle and cracked bones beneath. Nerves twitched like violin strings before they snapped, and her organs ruptured. Within minutes, nothing was left of her mother but shards of bone, clumps of fur, and a foul, putrid smell laden with stomach acid that stung Chihiro's throat.

Chihiro backed away from her mother's corpse and slipped on the crystalline powder behind her. She fell onto her rear and scooted further from the pedestal, forming a large pile of dust against her back. When the pile reached her shoulders, she stopped and buried her eyes in her knees. She couldn't shed tears nor could her nauseous stomach heave up anything. Instead, she sat silent as sadness and anger stewed within her. Slowly, anger overcame her, anger at the humans that brainwashed her people, towards the father that never returned, towards a world that took her mother away from her, towards herself for being powerless to stop it.

"Yes, father could've done something about it," she growled. "So why didn't he? Because he wanted it. It's the only explanation. He went to the humans, then this happened. And he was human once, wasn't he? He… he's to blame…"

Chihiro returned to her mother's remains and engulfed them in a roaring blue fire, burning away even the stone it rested upon, until all that remained of the room was a glass-lined crater. Then she went back to her research.

Chapter 24: A Meal for Two

As Mewtwo munched on a pizza pocket, he wondered what the other options in Doctor Taka's kitchen unit tasted like, but he told it to never use the device or the others would find out he was here. So Mewtwo put aside the thought of other food as he swallowed a mouthful of root beer. It tossed away its bottle while Doctor Taka added the day's cap to his collection. The drawers overflowed with old bottle caps, and the doctor got a plastic tub to hold the rest.

A knock came from the door. Mewtwo activated its cloaking device before Doctor Taka opened the door. Nora Winters, formerly Alpha-Fourteen, walked into the room and stood just in front of Mewtwo.

"I hope you don't mind we talk."

"Not at all," Doctor Taka said. "It's been too long."

"Indeed it has." Nora leaned back, and Mewtwo squeezed himself into the corner to keep from touching her. "Do you remember what I said three years ago, before the Alpha-Beta project?"

Mewtwo had never seen the doctor so pale. "Oh, that. I, um, well, I hadn't thought about it very much. I still don't have an answer yet."

"I thought that I needed to give you time, but lately I feel that if I wait too long, it will be too late. Well, is it too late?"

"I–" Mewtwo couldn't tell if the doctor was looking at it or at Nora as he said, "It is. Sorry."

"I thought so. Thanks for being honest." Nora walked through the door and stopped. "Also, there's an urgent meeting in the conference room. You have five minutes."

Once the door closed, Doctor Taka threw on a fresh lab coat and grabbed his tablet. Mewtwo asked, "Don't you like her?"

"I can't drag her into this," the doctor said before he opened the door.

"But–"

"We can talk more once I'm back." And then Doctor Taka was gone. Mewtwo opened up the doctor's computer, activated the incognito mode, and read through Sinex files from Section Alpha, studying the teleporter. Then it took out the teleporter that Doctor Taka had reverse engineered from a pokeball. The doctor's patchwork design seemed far cruder, but it had the same prisms to focus the beam and the same photon generator that powered the machine. Mewtwo turned it on, pointed it at the bedsheets, and made them reappear two feet above the bed. They landed with a soft _whump_ and a gentle gust.

After Mewtwo remade the bed, Doctor Taka threw open the door and dropped to the floor.

"The teleporter, where is it?"

"Here," Mewtwo said, handing him the device. "What's wrong?"

"They found Arkus' child. Or at least, I think so. We need to move now."

"Wait, what's going on?"

"No time to explain. Here, put this on." Doctor Taka handed him a rough scale armor made of discarded pokeball parts. "There's a lot of residual Aura in the area. You won't last long without that on."

"Where am I going?"

"Into the heart of the storm," Doctor Taka blurted as he inputted coordinates into the teleporter. "A massive Aura surge was detected. Good thing it's so big – they're waiting one hour before sending the Field Agents in. Get her and get back here before then, and if you can't, just warn her and get out." Doctor Taka handed him a transceiver. "Hit that button, and the teleporter will bring you back, along with whatever your arms are touching. Make sure you're not touching a wall, alright?"

"I – I understand."

As the light enveloped him, Doctor Taka said, "And don't forget, only speak Palsitoran! We don't want to alarm it!"

Mewtwo tried to respond, but it was warped to its destination before the words came out. Mewtwo found itself in a place it had never imagined could exist, a world of green and brown unbound by walls and lit with no discernible source. Loamy dirt squished between its toes as it took a step forward. So stunned it was by the scenery, Mewtwo almost forgot to speak in Palsitoran.

"Hello," it called out. "Is anyone there?"

As it walked forward, it stopped to admire a cluster of leaves at the end of a branch, tracing the veins across the webbed, leathery structure. Then it watched a wurmple chew its way through a leaf. When he leaned in too close, the wurmple gave a frightened screech and squirted web into its face. Mewtwo stumbled back and swiped at its sticky face, scrubbing itself until it was clean. Then it got back up and kept walking.

A few minutes later, Mewtwo came upon a clearing in the forest. At the center stood a smooth, brown rock. Mewtwo knocked on it, but nothing happened. Then it turned around and called again.

"Hello! Please answer me?"

He saw a blue face peering at him out of the forest. Mewtwo recognized it from all the pictures and tried to approach it.

"Hi, my name's Mewtwo. I came here to talk to you."

The creature gave a yelp and ran into the forest. Mewtwo chased after it, but Mewtwo tripped on a stick and lost sight of it.

"Hey, wait!"

This time, he got a reply. A blue-furred figure, too stunned to speak, sprinted out of the forest behind him and slid to a halt. When Mewtwo turned around, she waved a paw in front of its face and poked the armor it wore.

"Did you just speak?" Chihiro asked.

"Yes."

"You – you understand me?"

"Yes."

Tears started to form in her eyes, but she blinked them away and said, "My name's Chihiro. Why don't you come in? I'll make you something to eat."

"Oh, uh, alright. I'm Mewtwo. But wait, what about that other one?"

"Other one?" Chihiro asked as she walked up to the rock. "Oh, that. Just, just forget about it, okay?" She swiped her paw to the side, opening the door. Mewtwo tried moving it, but his hand waving did nothing.

"No one else has powers like mine. That's why my work is so important?"

"What work?"

Chihiro looked away and said, "I can explain that later. Let's eat."

Chihiro rummaged through the kitchen. She first came out with a plate of croquettes, but then she threw them away and delved deeper into the fridge. She came out with two thick, juicy slabs of beef and ignited the air around them, lightly searing the surface of the steaks. Then she picked out a bushel of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, sliced them with Aura, and steamed them with their own moisture. She brought out two plates and swiped off all the grime on them in a clean, neat line. Then she looked for a table before making one out of the cavern's rock, threw a clean bedsheet on it, formed two more chairs out of rock, changed the chair's composition so the rock turned soft and springy like proper cushions, and set the plates down. She turned each one so they were perfectly rotationally symmetrical, with vegetables on the left and meat on the right. She sat down and noticed there wasn't any silverware. She rushed halfway to the kitchen, but then decided to make her own, pulling iron out of the soil and making intricate carvings on the handles. She honed the knives to a razor edge and made every tine an equal length and perfectly smooth. And Chihiro did all this before Mewtwo walked through the door.

"Oh wow. Where's your, uh, kitchen… dispenser?"

"The kitchen? Er, it's over there. Anyways, let's eat."

Chihiro sat down and placed her journal next to her plate. stuffed a piece of meat in her mouth and started speaking, but then she stopped herself and swallowed the food.

"Where are you from? Yvenna? Is everything alright over there?"

"Err, it's not."

"Oh. Well, at least someone else made it. You're not like the others. How did you do it?"

"How? What do you mean?"

"You know, how did you avoid turning into… them?"

Mewtwo clumsily cut a ragged chunk of meat and placed it into his mouth. The savory juices tickling his tongue shocked him into coughing it out.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Chihiro said, leaning forward to take the plate away. "Would you prefer something else?"

"No, it's amazing! I never had anything like this before."

Chihiro let out a sigh, leaned back, and smiled. "Good! I had stuff like this a few times before. I thought it would be appropriate. Glad you like it. I used to be really bad at cooking, but now I've got the hang of it. It's all about manipulating the concentration of certain tastes within the food. But I still can't make them as good as… nevermind. Let's eat."

The armor Mewtwo wore clattered and chafed his chin as he tried to cut his steak. Chihiro leaned forward and touched it.

"Why are you wearing that?"

"It's to protect me from all the Aura that's around. He said it would kill me if I didn't wear this."

"Oh, that. Don't worry, I can keep you safe. Go ahead and take it off."

"Well, alright." Mewtwo shrugged off the metal jacket and leaned it against the wall. Then he started eating the vegetables and enjoyed every aromatic bite.

"Wow, these are great. Oh hey, you have a book! Can I read it?"

Chihiro shoved the book off the table and looked away. "I can explain it later. Just eat."

They ate the rest of the meal in silence, and once they were finished, Chihiro teleported the plates back into the kitchen.

"So, how exactly did you escape?"

"Escape? Escape what?"

"The – the whatever it was that, you know, made them them."

"I don't understand."

Chihiro looked away. "All the pokemon became animals. How did you avoid that?"

"Well, I was asleep when it happened."

"Asleep?"

"Yeah. Doctor Taka kept me safe. He said that the others had no use for me and asked me to help him."

"Help him what?"

"Help him help your dad."

All the warmth fled from Chihiro's eyes. Her blue irises turned into blocks of frigid, jagged ice chilling Mewtwo's skin.

"And who is Doctor Taka? Is he human?"

"Well, uh, yes."

Chihiro smashed the table into rubble and stepped over it. Mewtwo backed away as she stomped towards him.

"And what does this human want with me?"

"He sent me to come get you, since the others are coming."

"What will he do with me once he has me? Make me like all the others?"

Mewtwo leapt towards the armor on the floor, but Chihiro made a hole in the rock, and the armor vanished inside. Then another hole formed beneath Mewtwo, and the rock closed around it.

"I – I don't understand! We're just trying to help you!"

Chihiro gave Mewtwo a soft smile. "Don't worry, I understand. You got brainwashed into doing this, didn't you? Don't worry. I'll make your death quick and painless."

Chihiro clenched her paw, and Aura gathered between her fingers, forming a spear of light. Mewtwo closed its eyes and braced itself, trying everything it could to break free. Then it felt power welling up in the back of its mind, surging through its nerves, coalescing in its skin, and breaking out. The rock around it shattered, and the spear Chihiro threw cracked against Mewtwo's power. It was free.


	13. Chapters 25-26

Chapter 25: Out of Breath

As the rocks fell, Chihiro threw herself back and made her own shield. Mewtwo looked at its bulbous fingers and the purple, swirling power that floated between them. The sensation of power flowing through its body, almost as though steak juices flowed through its veins, seemed so familiar to it. Power flowed loosely through its body, and it could sense the weaknesses in the shield swirling around itself. It poured more power into the cracks, honing its shield to an unfathomable density, until it couldn't sense anything beyond its walls.

A minute went by. Mewtwo pressed its face against the shield, but it couldn't see anything. Then, in a flash of blue light, the shield flew apart. Mewtwo felt its shield crumble under a maelstrom of Aura in the span of a few microseconds, sensed its power flowing from the surface of the shield inward, caving under all the energy stored within the caverns for millennia. Like neurons, the slender psychic links between Mewtwo and its shield made it reflexively jump sideways milliseconds before the entire cave behind it was vaporized. All that remained of the kitchen were the pipes for the sinks, spewing water into the air, and one corner of the pantry with half a box of preserved oran berries, with a smooth, circular piece scoured away.

Mewtwo sprinted out the opening Chihiro made, and she ran after it, flinging spheres of Aura. Mewtwo's senses warned it of each projectile, and each time it felt like a bad sunburn. Its whole back burned from the constant barrage, and it felt blisters forming on its skin.

Mewtwo leapt into the air, and Chihiro overshot it, running into a tree as she turned towards him. The tree flew apart in an explosion of wood chips, leaving behind a ragged stump and a long furrow in the earth. Chihiro dashed back towards him, expelling Aura from her feet to reach blinding speeds. Mewtwo instinctively followed suit, gliding an inch off the ground and thrusting himself forward with power from its hands and feet. They raced between the trees as Chihiro ravaged the landscape with her power. Sweat poured down Mewtwo's face, and it closed its eyes to keep them from stinging. The world around it lit up in purple light, and without its eyes, it could see everything.

"Oh crap, how much time do I have left?" Mewtwo asked itself as it flew towards the caverns. It hid inside one of the rooms and stifled the power coming out from it.

"Wait, please stop fighting!" Mewtwo yelled once he heard Chihiro step inside. "We're running out of time!"

It sensed the burst of Aura sweeping through the rock and ducked. Boulders rained down from the ceiling and buried it. When it broke free, Chihiro was waiting atop the pile, pointing a spear at it. In its panic, Mewtwo phased out of existence and reappeared four feet to its right. Pebbles flew from the crater Chihiro made, bombarding Mewtwo with a shower of stones. Then Chihiro rushed forward and punched at it. Mewtwo ducked sideways and then teleported into the air.

"The other humans are coming! We don't have time to fight!"

Chihiro smiled at it. Her eyes glittered with tears, and she let out a ragged, chilling laugh. "Well, then I'll just have to make this quick."

Chihiro closed her eyes, and then a moment later, she vanished. Mewtwo sensed her reappear right behind him, but it was too slow to dodge the blast of Aura Chihiro fired at it. Mewtwo teleported erratically, trying to shake her, but she was always a step behind, launching Aura at him whenever he paused for a breath. Purple blood trickled from a cut in its shoulder, and the more it teleported, the more its lungs hurt from air deprivation and the more its vision blurred. Its nerves burned, and it could feel its power running short.

"Sorry, but I have to end it."

Mewtwo landed and concentrated the last of its power between its hands, forming a smooth, crackling purple sphere. When Chihiro appeared directly in front of it, Mewtwo launched the sphere forward. It slammed into Chihiro's chest, knocking her back fifty feet in a cloud of dust and energy. A concussive blast knocked Mewtwo back towards the caverns, hefted boulders into the air, and flattened the few standing trees.

Mewtwo stood up and stared at the billowing dust cloud rising in front of it. Then the dust parted. Chihiro flew from the rift, running so quickly that Mewtwo couldn't see her feet touching the ground. She held a spinning blade of Aura between the palms of her hands, slicing the air itself in two. Mewtwo threw up a shield and leapt aside, but the Aura sliced cleanly through its power and its shoulder. Its arm hung onto the rest of its body by a few sinews of flesh near its hip, and viscous purple blood bubbled from the gaping wound. But even before Mewtwo felt the pain, its power started knitting the flesh together and kept the blood within the flesh's tear.

Chihiro towered over him and laughed, but then she coughed and clutched her chest. Drops of blood stained her lips.

"Damn you, that hurt. But I'm – I'm going to kill you now. Painless, just like I promised."

Chihiro gathered more Aura in her hands, but she couldn't stabilize it – her power drifted through the air and vanished, leaving only a thin, wriggling strand between her fingers.

Then footsteps disturbed a stack of rocks.

"I think I heard something over here," an Agent said. "Permission to investigate?"

"We have it," another said. "Have your pokemon ready at a moment's notice."

Chihiro growled at the voices and sprinted away. Mewtwo stood and tried to follow after her, but its legs wouldn't stop shaking.

"Time to leave," it whispered, reaching for the transceiver that was tucked in its armor. Mewtwo, too tired to realize the transceiver's absence, kept rummaging around imaginary pockets for the device until it grazed the healing wound. The pain startled it into clarity, and it panicked when it heard the footsteps just beyond a mound of rocks. It looked around for a hiding spot and hobbled back into the caves. All the rooms were reduced to rubble, with cables and machines scattered in cracked pieces. Sparks danced across a fractured light fixture and crackled on the surface of a growing murky puddle.

Mewtwo glanced across the ruins and saw an opening to a descending staircase. It stumbled across the rubble, keeping low to stay hidden behind the piles. As it passed the remnants of the table, it noticed the corner of a book, the rest buried beneath a light blanket of pebbles. Mewtwo glanced back before taking the book and limping down the stairs. Blood dripped from its gaping wound with each step. It could hear the footsteps following him.

"There's a trail of blood leading this way," one said. "We're looking into it."

"We shouldn't go too far. There's no telling if aftershocks will occur."

"Agreed, but anything losing this much blood won't make it that far. We'll find it soon."

Mewtwo held its hand over its mouth, clenching its teeth to silence its grunts of pain. When it finally reached the bottom, however, all it saw was more ruin and nowhere to run.

"We really shouldn't go down here," a voice said. "It's the epicenter, just being in there could kill us."

"But what if the lucario's here? We should check to be sure."

"But the Aura–"

"It won't hurt us to be down here a minute. If we don't find anything before then, we'll go back up."

"Agreed."

Mewtwo reached for its cloaking device before realizing that it also had been lost with its armor.

"Hey, message from the team up top. They found the target and need backup to catch it. Now we really need to go back upstairs."

Mewtwo's spirits lifted, but they were swiftly squashed.

"Not yet. We're already down here, so we might as well take a quick look. It'll take longer to get up the stairs than it would to take a peek."

"Alright, I'll let them know, but it's your ass if it gets away."

It could see the light they were holding round the corner of the stairwell and did the only thing it could think of. It closed its eyes, thought of Doctor Taka's room, and teleported.

It could feel itself being rushed through a hazy black space, in a strange in-between world where all that existed was itself, wreathed in a soft purple glow, and a bright, blue, burning star way off in the distance. Mewtwo moved farther away from the star, but with nothing else to distinguish the void, it had no way of discerning where or how far it was going. As it traveled, Mewtwo felt the burning sensation of oxygen deprivation welling up in its chest. It flailed and struggled for a surface until it emerged back into reality. Mewtwo found itself in a sparse forest, surrounded by moss and silence. It looked around and saw a cloud of dust rising far behind it.

Mewtwo sat down and looked at the book in its hands. He leafed through the pages and looked at the hand-drawn pictures, all pointing at a bulbous, wrinkled object. Different parts were shaded or crossed out in each image, and tiny tick marks were drawn between different portions.

It put the book away and inspected the wound in its side. It had already half-closed up, knitting the tissue together to the bottom of its upper chest. A shiny white scar stretched down to its hip, stinging when Mewtwo touched it. Mewtwo thought about resting more but realized that Doctor Taka needed to hear what had happened. So, once its breath returned, it tried once more to teleport. Again it found itself in a forest, this time with the dust cloud diminished in size, and again it teleported, repeating the process until the cloud receded from sight and the forest thickened into an arboreal maze. All the teleporting kept its wound open, and purple blood seeped onto its shoulder.

Mewtwo closed its eyes and took a deep breath for the last teleport. It surged forward, but this time, it also felt like it was descending into a viscous puddle. After a minute, its lungs began to burn and it tried cancelling the teleport, but it was stuck, as though the pond it swam in had frozen over. It beat its arms against the squishy space engulfing it, but it could not escape. Colors flashed in its eyes, and it clutched at its throat in vain effort to grasp at oxygen. However, as the light began to fade, the space around it collapsed into reality, and it fell onto Doctor Taka's bed. Blood gushed onto his sheets. The Doctor panicked and wrapped the bedspread around the wound.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"I – I couldn't get her to come. She got angry and hurt me. I don't know why."

"Just breathe. I'll try to stop the bleeding better."

Doctor Taka unwrapped the bedspread, but the bleeding had already stopped. He stared as the flesh knitted itself back together.

"How is that possible?" he asked. "And how did you get here?"

"This," Mewtwo answered. It raised its hand and made the bed float into the air. "I was suddenly able to do all this. But that doesn't matter. Chihiro's dangerous, we have to do something?"

"Chihiro? That's her name? So you spoke with her?" Doctor Taka looked at the book in Mewtwo's hand and asked, "What's that?"

"Oh, this? Chihiro had this book. It has weird diagrams in it, and I don't recognize the words."

"Let me read that." Doctor Taka took the book. His eyebrows furrowed into a scowl through the first page, and as he continued through the book, his frown deepened. Tears dripped from the corners of his eyes, and his hands shook.

Doctor Taka slammed the book shut. "This is why we should have never done that. All it caused was misery and anger."

"Why? What kind of story is it?"

"It isn't a story – it's a journal. Chihiro wrote down everything she did in here, all the tinkering with brains, all the pokemon she killed, all the minds she warped. I – it's just as depraved as the Lambda experiments, maybe worse."

"What do we do?" Mewtwo asked. "We should tell them, shouldn't we?"

Doctor Taka placed his hand on his forehead. "We can't. They'd find out about you if I did that, and then they'd destroy you."

"But Chihiro will try to ruin everything. She's too dangerous to ignore."

Doctor Taka sighed and sat down in his chair. He span around the room four times before stopping. Then his pad beeped, and he read the message on it.

"It says they caught the target."

Mewtwo thought for a moment and said, "It's probably the other one I saw."

"The other? Oh, her child. Hmm…" Doctor Taka spun around a few more times, and said while spinning, "I have an idea. Put a lab coat on, we're attending the meeting."

Doctor Taka's spare lab coat was too tight to button around Mewtwo's chest, so instead it wore the coat open. The coat's hem was lifted by Mewtwo's tail, and it shuffled back and forth as Mewtwo walked. They left the lab and passed by numerous Agents. Some stared and others took out their tablets, swiftly typing messages into the screens.

"Are you sure about this?" Mewtwo whispered.

"It's the only way. I'll make it work somehow."

Chapter 26: High-Stakes Poker

Mewtwo and Doctor Taka wound their way through the halls, walking steadily closer to the heart of the Sinex Conglomerate. They approached the Agents standing guard outside the elevator. They glared at Mewtwo and consulted their tablets before calling the elevator and stepping aside. Doctor Taka and Mewtwo walked through the doors and began the descent.

"So, what is–"

"Ssh. They can hear us."

Mewtwo's question went unanswered in the silence that fell between them. Even the elevator didn't seem to make a sound, for no matter how Mewtwo strained to hear something, all it could hear was the beating of its own heart, faintly ringing against the bones in his skull.

Mewtwo jumped when the doors opened with a soft click. It followed after Doctor Taka as he stood behind his seat. The four Directors and their assistants had already arrived, along with Nora Winters. Nora, having lost her assistant's seat, was moved to a chair in the corner.

"Well?" Director Sheldon said. "Do you have an explanation for this?"

"Perhaps you would prefer to explain, Director Lammers?" Doctor Taka retorted. All eyes in the room turned towards the Beta Director.

He tugged at the collar of his coat and shot Doctor Taka a discreet, seething glance. "It would be more efficient for you to explain, since you have been more involved in this… project."

Mewtwo saw the tension ease out of Doctor Taka's shoulders and felt itself relax. Doctor Taka sat down and said, "Alright then. But first, I have something more important to show you all."

He set Chihiro's journal on the table and opened it up. The Directors and their assistants passed it around, each one professing they couldn't read it, until it reached the seat next to the Delta Director.

"Holy shit," he said. "Who wrote this?"

"Chihiro did."

"And who's Chihiro?" Director Sheldon asked. Then he glowered. "And why do I get the feeling you've picked up some bad habits from your former Director?"

Doctor Taka spread his arms and said, "Chihiro is the daughter of Arkus we've been looking for."

Director Lammers opened his mouth, but he glanced around and kept his thought to himself. Then the Gamma Director said, "Haven't you heard the news? We captured it already."

"Doctor Strobel," Doctor Taka said to the assistant holding the book, "Would you kindly flip to page one hundred and forty-seven and translate its contents aloud?"

The assistant fumbled through the text, but he eventually revealed the child Chihiro created. Director Sheldon tore at what little hair he had left and pounded the table while the other members in the room stared.

"You have got to be kidding! That – that thing outsmarted us!" Then he slammed the table and pointed at Doctor Taka. "You! You said that she was pacified! How did you let this happen?"

Doctor Taka leaned back in his chair, but Mewtwo could see his muscles tensing in his neck. "It's not my fault your device didn't function properly. Perhaps you should've realized that Aura is anathema to the zoroark's power before using it as the focal point of your device."

"Then why didn't you say anything? We could've sent a larger search party with more powerful equipment!"

"Because we didn't have any evidence, just suspicions. That's why I sent my Agent out before the search party."

"Ah yes, your… Agent," Director Sheldon growled. "Now tell me, why is that thing still here? It was supposed to be destroyed before the Alpha-Beta project!"

Mewtwo felt psychic energy gathering in its hands and smothered it. Doctor Taka gestured towards the Beta Director and said, "That's where Director Lammers enters the picture. He thought that Mewtwo had too much potential to throw away before the experiment was complete."

Director Lammers was about to interrupt when Doctor Taka pulled the keycard out of his pocket and said, "That's why he gave me a keycard with his access code on it – to have access to the specimen even after I was transferred to Section Alpha."

Director Lammers clenched his hands as the others in the room glanced at him in shock and anger. "So this was his doing," Director Sheldon grumbled.

"And I think it was very wise of him," Doctor Taka quickly added. "We learned a lot because of it."

The Alpha Director gave him a grumpy glare. "Go on."

"First off, we learned that Mewtwo has latent psychic powers we haven't seen before. Mewtwo, a demonstration please.

Mewtwo suppressed the urge to choke Sheldon to death and instead made the table hover in the air. Everyone but Doctor Taka scooted away from the airborne table as it rose and fell.

Doctor Taka pointed at Mewtwo's scar and said, "Second, we learned that Chihiro is considerably more powerful than when we first found her, now nearly powerful enough to kill Mewtwo. Would you care to explain further?"

Mewtwo glanced around the room and said, "She was powerful enough to destroy the caves. I struck her with everything I had and barely hurt her. She's too dangerous to leave alive."

Director Sheldon slammed the table and said, "But that doesn't dismiss the fact that you kept this all secret from us! How can you explain that?"

Doctor Taka's shoulders tensed up. Mewtwo watched tiny rivers of sweat trickle down his neck and dampen the collar of his lab coat. It felt its arm muscles twitch and sparks of energy quiver between its fingers. As Doctor Taka's twitching reached a climax, he leaned forward and murmured, "There's a third thing we learned."

"What was that?"

"We learned something else. That – that you are incompetent."

The room fell silent. The other Directors gave him shocked, wide-mouthed stares while Director Sheldon reddened and clenched his teeth.

"What the fuck did you just say! I can have you discharged for that!"

Doctor Taka's shoulders bunched together. "But there's no denying that all this happened right beneath your nose. Between the Alpha project failing to incapacitate Chihiro and the grave oversight of both this fact and the presence of Mewtwo in your facility, you have proven yourself unsuited for your position." Doctor Taka stood and tightened his lab coat, twisting it back and forth to wipe the sweat from his neck. Then he looked Director Sheldon in the eye and said, "I call for Director Sheldon's immediate removal from office and for his chosen successor to take his place."

"But that would be you!" the Gamma Director blurted.

The room fell into chaos as Directors and their assistants first talked and then yelled over each other. After a minute, Director Sheldon slammed the table hard enough for the bang to echo across the room. His face had reddened all the way to his ears, and a blood vessel had burst in his left eye.

"Enough!" Saliva spattered from his mouth as he shouted. "I refuse to sit here and listen as I am slandered! This is clearly the work of Director Sheldon – he's the one that hid Mewtwo from us, he's the one that instructed Doctor Taka to continue this project under my nose, and he's the one who hid Chihiro's intelligence from us! So I propose that he be removed from office immediately, and replaced with his own successor!" He punctuated the own with an air of retribution, grinning wickedly as all eyes turned towards the Beta Director.

Doctor Taka went pale and sank into his chair. Mewtwo prepared its psychic power, thinking of something it could do but failing to come up with anything.

Director Lammers said nothing as, one by one, hands rose. Director Sheldon shot his hand into the air. The Gamma Director quickly followed suit, along with his assistant. Then Director Lammers' assistant glanced at his director before raising his hand. The Zeta Director held back, but when his assistant agreed, he joined in. All eyes looked towards Doctor Taka – Director Sheldon with enough fire to kindle steel, and the others with disgust. Doctor Taka shivered, but the lab coat hid it. He was about to place his hand on the table when Director Lammers gave him a nod. Doctor Taka paused, swallowed, then raised his hand.

"That decides it," Director Sheldon said. "By a unanimous vote from the rest of the Sinex Council, I, Director Sheldon, hereby order you to hand over your Directorship to your successor, Doctor Smith."

"You are mistaken," Director Lammers said. "He is not my successor."

"What? Well, then who is it?"

Director Lammers pointed across the table at Doctor Taka. The whole room glanced back and forth between the two men before falling into chaos once more. And again, it was Sheldon's temper that brought order.

"That's not possible! The rules clearly state that your successor must be your assistant on the Council!"

"Actually, it doesn't," Director Lammers retorted. "It only states they must be a member of the Council. The rules neither specify the Sector they must work under nor do they state that only successors may attend the Council, the latter of which I'm sure Nora can testify to."

Director Zane flipped through his tablet for a minute. Every eye in the room followed the swift jabbing motions of his fingers until they stopped.

"Director Lammers is correct. Doctor Taka remains his successor within the systems."

"Wh – why didn't you change it?" Director Sheldon sputtered. "He's not even in your Sector anymore!"

"Because filing all the paperwork to change a successor is such a chore," Director Lammers said with a wry smile, "As I'm sure you're well aware of. Well, Sheldon, do you change your mind?"

The Alpha Director breathed deeply and quickly. Then he started laughing, a forced, rough chuckle that dripped with contempt.

"Nope! I don't mind one bit. My vote stays where it is."

One by one, everyone around the table reaffirmed their vote. Nora leaned forward, ready to say something, but she glanced at Director Sheldon and stepped back. Color returned to Doctor Taka's skin, but his shoulders remained tense as the Directors processed the replacement of the Beta Director.

After a minute, Director Lammers said, "It's done. Your tablet should be receiving the Director's authorization now."

As he said that, Doctor Taka's tablet vibrated. A single icon popped up on his screen, the symbol of Sinex, the phoenix, cast in white and with blue shading in the middle of the left wing representing Beta. He opened it, revealing a dizzying cluster of folders and operations that stretched deep within cyberspace. His very fingertips brushed against the lifeblood of Sinex, and he could feel its heartbeat within the lines of code processed into visual data.

And with that, it was over. The announcement raced across Sinex to every tablet within the facility. Names swapped places on rooms and lab documentation listed Director Taka's name.

"Enjoy your retirement," Sheldon smugly said as he took Director Lammer's tablet.

"I fully intend to," he replied. "I've had enough of this bullshit to last me another lifetime."

As Lammers walked past Director Taka, the new Beta Director received the last message from Lammer's tablet before its data was deleted. It read, "You're welcome. Don't forget about Project Lambda." Director Taka erased the file and put away his tablet.

On his way to the Beta Laboratories, Nora Winters ran up to Director Taka and stood in his way. Mewtwo backed away and stepped behind a corner.

"Is that why you didn't want me around?" she asked. "You planned this. I can tell. Director Lammers was too stunned by it to know anything. You planned to have Director Sheldon removed." She shook her head and said, "That isn't like you. What happened?"

"Stand aside."

"Or what? You'll have me dismissed?"

"Yes."

Nora clenched her hand and moved it back for a punch, but she let it fall. "Someday, I'm going to be the Alpha Director. And when I am, I will make sure you are removed. Just. Like. Lammers."

Nora Winters bumped against Director Taka as she walked away. She glared at Mewtwo before disappearing down the hall.

Director Taka didn't say a word as he entered his new office. It was already stripped bare of all of Lammer's possessions and his own were carefully transplanted from his own desk and closet, each item in perfect proportion to his former living arrangements. The kitchen unit, larger and sleeker than the standard design, displayed a cornucopia of culinary options"

Director Taka sat at his desk and leaned forward, resting his forehead on the table. He gripped his hair, pulling lightly on his scalp, and laughed, softly at first, but louder and louder. Tears pooled onto the table and soaked his hair. Mewtwo tried to place a hand on his shoulder, but it didn't know how to react.

"I don't know why I did all that," Doctor Taka said. "I didn't mean to go that far. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I couldn't help myself. I said the first thought that came to mind without even thinking about it. And now look at me. I'm the fucking Director of the wrong Sector."

Mewtwo looked around the room and walked over to the kitchen unit. It ordered pizza pockets and root beer, handing a bottle and a plate to the Director. "So, what do we do now?"

Director Taka looked up, soaked and bleary-eyed, and said, "Whatever it takes to make it right."


	14. Chapter 27 & Epilogue

Chapter 27: A Dark Legacy

After forty-seven years passed, Director Taka had stored his bottlecap collection in a private, specially constructed room right next to his office. Every night, he would take the cap from his daily root beer and throw it in with the others, forming a massive pile of caps that jangled and spilled into the hallway every time he opened the door.

Once he has swept all his caps back into the room, Director Taka would usually make his rounds through the Beta Sector, surveying all the experiments under his purview from pokemon healing stations to portable medical treatments, all in preparation of repurposing the sedated pokemon as pets and labor. However, on the last day, he walked past all the superficial experiments and went straight to the heart of Beta. There, Mewtwo worked at a computer, manipulating hundreds of keyboards and examining dozens of computer monitors surrounding it.

"How goes the calculations?" Director Taka asked.

"Everything is as you surmised," Mewtwo answered, "But there is a high probability that we won't be able to create a viable organism from the remaining cells. We can't even examine the sample's genetic structure due to all the interference."

"Well, we know it's human. Factor that into the calculations and try again."

"I already did, and the results were far more favorable, but we really shouldn't assume–"

"I'm not assuming anything. Video footage from the Delta Project shows it happening." Director Taka placed his hand on Mewtwo's shoulder, and Mewtwo stopped typing. "I understand you don't want this to end. I don't either. But my time runs short. Sooner or later, even our finest medical equipment won't keep me alive, and I want to get this project started with my own hands. It's up to you to take care of the rest once I'm gone."

"I understand."

"Then get ready. I will etch the rupture lines into the Alpha Ball in one hour. Make sure you're below me at that time."

Director Taka walked even deeper into Section Beta, to the storage rooms. Hundreds of cryochambers hummed along the walls, displaying pristinely frozen bodies behind digital windows. He walked past all of them and approached the sealed vault at the end of the room. With a single swipe of his keycard, the armored door swung open with a metallic chunk. The array of laser sensors flickered off, leaving exposed the tiny black vial at the vault's center. Director Taka wrapped it in lead-lined cloth and tucked it into his left jacket pocket, next to a metal box.

Director Taka kept his hand in that pocket as he walked outside of Section Beta and into the center of Sinex. There, guarded by two Agents, each accompanied by an aggron, and thick metal doors lined with Delta Alloy, was an elevator down into the Alpha-Beta room. Nora Winters walked past, holding a bundle of fiber optic cables under her chin while typing into her tablet.

"Director Winters, care to accompany me down to the Alpha Ball? It's the fiftieth anniversary."

Nora had kept the first half of her promise. Within five years of his succession, she too became a Director, replacing Sheldon when his health failed him. However, no matter how hard she tried, she could never get the unanimous vote required to remove Ashi Taka, nor could she remove Mewtwo from the Council and replace it with the missing vote.

Director Winters walked on without looking at him. Director Taka shrugged towards the Agents and showed them his card. They swiped it on the elevator terminal, and the doors opened for him. The elevator shot down with enough momentum for the Director's feet to briefly leave the floor, and in two minutes, with the assistance of gravity manipulation, the elevator made the mile-long descent down to the core. The Alpha Ball stood on a metal pedestal, held in place by Delta Alloy clamps and cables. Cameras and sensors scanned the room from every corner, and gun turrets lined every wall, each pointed towards the Alpha Ball.

Director Taka took out the metal box and held it in his hand. He pressed his thumb against a little square indent, which read his thumbprint before clicking open. The box popped, and the crab-like robot inside curled open. It walked across his palm on six spindly legs, and it had two thin arms that ended in microscopic lenses. It had a circular indent in its back, into which Director Taka pressed the black vial. Then he placed the robot onto the Alpha Ball. With a sharp clicking noise, it stomped across the Alpha Ball and clasped it between its legs. Then it teleported, taking the Alpha Ball without disturbing its Delta Alloy prison.

Once it was on the floor, the robot suspended the Alpha Ball on the ends of its legs and pointed its two arms towards the round dot on the ball. The vial on the back glowed, and a viscous black fog flowed down its arms and into the lenses, forming a tiny focused laser that cut into the Alpha Ball. The robot meticulously spun the Alpha Ball millimeters at a time, forming an intricate circular grid around the Alpha Ball's lock.

Halfway through his work, Ashi Taka heard the elevator coming down. He took a pokeball out of his pocket, summoning a metagross.

"Hold them off for ten minutes," he told it. "After that, start the countdown on the explosives."

The metagross grunted and planted its legs into the floor. The room was coated in a blue veil, and the elevator was crammed shut with psychic power. Pounding and hammering came from the elevator, but the doors held as the robot etched the final lines into the Alpha Ball. With a ding, the vial dimmed, and the robot teleported itself into the ventilation shafts below the room, appearing in front of Mewtwo. Mewtwo pried the lifeless robot off of the Alpha Ball, but instead of teleporting out, it decided to wait and listen.

"Alright, you can go now," Director Taka told the metagross. It teleported, leaving him alone with Director Winters and a dozen of her Agents. The Agents pointed their laser rifles at Director Taka, and Director Winters drew a pistol.

"What have you done?" she asked.

"It's not what I have done, but what I have yet to do, that you should be asking."

"Stop playing games!" She fired a shot, searing a hole into the Alpha Ball's pedestal. "Where is it?"

"Gone. You'll never find it."

"What did you do?"

Director Taka took out his tablet. "Looks like it happened. We should be feeling the quakes in a few moments."

"I've had enough. Agent Harrison, cuff him."

As the Agent stepped forward, the room was rocked by a thunderous rumble, and a loud screeching sound thundered down the elevator.

"That would be the explosives. Now we're all stuck down here. Thanks to the ventilation, we should have a day until we die."

One of the Agents tried the elevator, but it refused to budge. He called out his pidgeot and mounted it.

Director Taka smiled and leaned back against the pedestal. "Don't bother. The whole lab's in ruins. One of the benefits of being underground is it makes explosives far more effective."

And then Mewtwo heard the gunshot. He couldn't tell which one did it, but he knew it was Ashi Taka's body that hit the floor, with a hole singed through his heart. It took the Alpha Ball and the vial, called a final farewell up the ventilation, and teleported to the surface.

Epilogue: Methods of Madness

Chihiro examined the ten humans she had tied to chairs. Each one struggled to break free of their restraints, but their feeble Aura couldn't even touch hers.

"I am going to give you a choice. Serve me, or I'll make you." She walked over to the chair on the left and lifted the woman's head so they stared eye to eye. "What about you? What choice will you make?"

The woman spat at her face, but the saliva stopped just before her fur. Chihiro flicked it aside and tapped her finger against the woman's forehead, scrambling her mind with a swipe of her Aura. Then she undid the restraints.

"Rise," she ordered the human. When she stood, Chihiro asked, "Will you obey any of my orders?"

"Any you give me," she replied in monotone.

Chihiro grabbed a knife and handed it to her. "Then cut off one of your fingers. I don't care which."

The woman placed her middle finger on the table and slammed the knife down an inch below the largest joint. She remained silent as blood spurted from the stump. Chihiro healed the wound and turned to the others.

"What about you? It doesn't matter to me if you keep my minds, as long as you follow my exact orders."

One by one, the other humans knelt before her. Without their noticing, Chihiro wove a bit of Aura into their minds, a slow-acting hypnosis that would leave them far better servants after they were conditioned.

"Your first mission – find Arkus. Do everything you have to for that purpose, and don't come back until you find him."

Sinex had rebuilt its headquarters above ground, sealed off within the heart of the rebuilt Palsitore City behind a wall of Delta Alloy. However, even this couldn't prevent Mewtwo from slipping in through the ventilation shafts, worming his way through the facility until he came into the room of the current Alpha Director. It appeared in front of the Director, holding Chihiro's journal in its hand.

"I haven't practiced this very much, so don't struggle. I wouldn't want to kill you by mistake."

After hours of redirecting neurons, the Director answered its orders, bending over and waving its arms like a wooden doll. Then Mewtwo moved on to the next Director, and the next, and the next, until every Section answered to it and it alone.

"Our mission," Mewtwo told its puppet Directors, "Is to open the Alpha Ball." It held up the black vial and said, "Reroute all research into cloning these cells."

And so, work began to bring Darkrai back to life.


End file.
